


Galactic Hunter

by Fire2TheMax



Series: The Iversen Legacy [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 10:19:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 42,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2648444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire2TheMax/pseuds/Fire2TheMax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kraglin buys a rare Terran creature, only to find out it's a kidnapped shape-shifter named Sonia. She ends up being an important key piece in an upcoming mission Yondu's been trying to plan out for years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Discovery - Kraglin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please give me feedback on this. I've been working on it for quite awhile and I tried to keep it as true to the comics/movie as I could. Let me know if anything is amiss. ~F2TM

“Quill!!”  


Yondu’s shout rang out across the center hub of Knowhere. I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that Peter wasn’t going to come running. After raising the kid for 26 years you’d think that Yondu would know how to handle him. As much as he hates to admit it, Yondu definitely has a soft spot for the boy.  


“Don’t you move, boy!” As soon as Peter bolted away, as predicted, Yondu let out of growl of frustration and charged after him. I repositioned my gun on my shoulder and started heading after Yondu, shoving aside the people in our way. It was crucial that we see where Peter headed.  


Sparks and debris continued to fall from the top of the Collector’s tower. Whatever happened up there, I was positive that Peter and the few following him were responsible. The people who were standing near the busted up building, curious as to it’s current state, made no motion to move out of our group’s way as we tried to make our way through. Yondu’s growls of frustration grew as we rounded a cluster of buildings to see Peter and his new allies boarding the small mining crafts. Having been to Knowhere before to do some of our highest paying and most illegal of jobs, Peter knew these crafts and their capabilities well.  


Yondu stopped to watch the mining crafts take off. He motioned to me to head off in a different direction.  


“Kraglin! You look for Quill’s Milano. He’s going to try to make his way back there.”  


I nodded and took off towards the nearest cluster of parked ships to hunt out Peter’s blue and orange Milano. Weaving through them, I quickly ascertained that none of these ships were even close to what I was looking for. I narrowed my eyes and scanned for another group. Spotting one nearby, I decided to cut through a cluster of stalls and shops. I was so focused on keeping an eye out for any potential pickpockets that when my foot landed on something that wasn’t the ground, I lurched forward in an attempt to keep my balance. I might have been more successful if not for the claws that reached out and sank deep into my boot, throwing me to the ground.  


I instinctively grabbed my gun and pointed it in the direction where the claws had come from. My sights found the most bizarre creature I’d ever seen. Standing on four legs and covered in sleek black fur, it had its head lowered, ears flat against the skull with its mouth bore into a toothy snarl. A low growl was emitting from it as its long tail lashed back and forth. Yellow eyes locked onto mine as I kept my gun steadied at its head.  


“You fucking idiot!” In the corner of my peripheral I saw the keeper of the stall step out towards the creature. The creature turned and let out a strange hiss, its long fangs gleaming in the low light. I saw a glint of gold and noticed that the creature had a few hoops hanging from its pointed ear. The harried looking keep reached down and grabbed a chain out of the dirt that snaked around and was attached to the creature’s studded leather collar.  


“If you didn’t just sit in the middle of the path maybe your tail wouldn’t have been stepped on.” The bearded, rough-looking Xandarian yanked the chain and hauled the creature back towards the stall.  


“What the hell is that?” I pointed at the creature as I picked myself up out of the dirt. Powering down my gun I brushed off a majority of the dirt. The beast skulked towards the stall and sat down with its ears still pinned back and its back mostly turned towards me and its keeper.  


“This is a rare creature from Terra. The cost is 50,000 Units.”  


“Fifty K!?” That was more than Yondu was willing to pay to have Peter brought back to him alive. This thing must be really rare if its cost was so high. “What do you do with it?”  


The keeper shrugged. “Whatever you want. I suppose if you can find a way to train it, it’d make a decent guard. It’s really strong, has higher senses than most other creatures and is a decent fighter. It’s also very smart, capturing it was a bitch.”  


I paused to consider this information. Something that rare would be cool to have. Judging by its temperament, training it would be a task in itself. Although, a guard this lethal could prove to be very useful, and it’s skill set could be of use when scavenging. What would Yondu say when I brought it back to the ship, though? I suppose I could always keep it in my personal ship if it proved too problematic to keep around the crew. Jax will just have to deal with it. “I’ll take it.”  


The creature’s ear flicked in my direction, its earrings letting out a soft jingle as they hit each other. I transferred the Units to the stall keep and he handed me the chain in return.  


I looked down at the chain. “Is this really necessary?”  


The previous owner nodded at me. “If that thing escapes, you won’t be able to catch it easily.” I gave the chain an experimental tug. The creature looked over at me with a seemingly annoyed expression in its face, white whiskers drooping and ears still back. It slowly got up and stood on its giant paws.  


The stall keeper went over it it and pointed in my direction. “Go on, cat!” The creature, a cat I guess, shot a low growl towards the keeper and padded over to me. I started walking away, continuing the route I was taking towards the next ship cluster when my communicator went off. Seeing that it was Yondu, I quickly answered it.  


“Kraglin, we jus’ got a message from Quill. He’s surrenderin’ an’ gave us his coordinates. Forget findin’ the Milano and come back now. We’re gointa get ‘im.”  


“You got it, Cap’n! I’ll be right there.”  


Ending the call, I turned around and started jogging back the way I came, my new cat trotting alongside me.


	2. Sold! - Sonia

I have been for sale and resale since I was first captured from Earth. First it was as a pet. I guess I was a pretty cute kitten. When I shifted back, and revealed to be human, I was sold back. My panther form was always more desirable, at least, until I grew older. Once my figure started to emerge, my captor tried a different approach when selling me. It turned out that people didn’t want sex slaves that could kill them in their sleep. After many attempts to sell me for my human form, it was soon deemed a bust as I kept being returned by angry, injured men.  


Now, at 26, I was moody, untrusting and constantly trying to plot my escape. I frequently kept panther form for the safety it provided, as well as the improved strength and senses of smell and hearing. After refusing to shift back, my captor finally decided to just try and sell me as is, a temperamental cat with a bad attitude and poorly trained people skills. I was rather fine with this new label, although rather nervous about whoever my new owner would be. Most likely it wasn’t going to end well.  


On this particular day, I had just been yelled at by Yarzon, the keeper of the stall where I was being sold at. Of course everything was my fault, I never asked to be captured and sold repeatedly for varying degrees of slavery, so I was rather testy at times. As per usual, I ignored him and ventured out as far as my chain would allow to see if I could see anything that could have caused the huge explosion that I had just heard recently. Yarzon kept grumbling insults at me, which he knew very well that I could hear. So I was already in a bad mood when that stranger stepped on my tail.  


He didn’t seem like a bad guy. Not thoroughly, at least. He was probably better than Yarzon, that’s for sure. I’m not saying that I trusted him off the bat, but he definitely seemed more trustworthy than most of my previous owners. Maybe I wouldn’t be as mean to him. As he stood up I noted his height, probably around 310 microbules or so. Rather tall, especially when compared to my 262 when human. His face was a little rough with a couple of small scars, and was topped by a short, dark mohawk. He also had a small tattoo on his neck. That’s when I noticed the Ravager symbol on his red leather coat.  


I’d heard people talking about the Ravagers. They used to frequent Knowhere but hadn’t been seen to do business in quite a few years. I must say, I was surprised when Yarzon didn’t tell the Ravager my full identity as a shifter during the transaction. He must be trying yet another sale tactic. He must really want me gone this time. Good, I wanted to be rid of him as well. The more I recollected what I’d heard of the Ravagers, the more I decided that I shouldn’t shift under any means. A crew comprised entirely of rough, roguish men was probably not the best company for revealing my female figure.  


After I left the stall with the Ravager, he received a call from his captain. It was from there that I picked up my new owner’s name, Kraglin. He promptly turned around and started running off in the other direction, I rolled my eyes and decided to not give him a hard time and follow him instead.  


We turned and went through the central hub of Knowhere, at the base of the Collector’s tower and headed towards a decent sized ship.  


“C’mon Cat. This is us, we need to get back to the main ship quickly.” I followed Kraglin as he climbed inside the ship. We went into the flight deck and he immediately started up and took off. I padded around the flight deck, intrigued. I’d never been allowed near one before as I was usually just thrown into the cargo hold. I jumped up in the other chair and watched out the front window as we headed towards the large expanse of space outside of Knowhere.  


“You know,” Kraglin started, keeping his eyes forward while occasionally glancing in my direction. “I remember Peter saying something about owning a cat back on Terra, but I always assumed they were a lot smaller. You guys must make somewhat decent pets, Peter was quite young when we first picked him up off of Terra.”  


I rolled my eyes and let out the tiniest of growls, although I don't think he heard me. How dare me compare me to some tame little _housecat_. As we prepared to dock inside of a much larger ship, Kraglin reached over and unclipped the thick chain from my collar.  


“You can’t go anywhere anyways.”  


When the ship was finished docking Kraglin got up walked over to stand near the door. I followed after him, curious to see the rest of the Ravagers. Kraglin looked down at me and gave a smirk. The doors opened and we made our way up to the main control room. I slunk after Kraglin, taking in my surroundings. By the scents meeting my nose, this place didn’t get cleaned very often, and had high traffic volume. It was entirely possible that the Ravagers’ crew was comprised of a lot more people than I had originally anticipated.  


We entered the control room and I squared my shoulders, preparing for the onslaught of strange looks that would surely be coming my way. As predicted, I captured the attention of most of the crew members in the control room. Kraglin ignored these looks and sauntered over to the guy standing over by the huge bay window. I wondered if he was trying to use me as some sort of status symbol.  


“Sir.” Kraglin said, standing attentively, waiting for his captain to acknowledge him.  


Suddenly I was struck with a feeling that we were going to be in trouble. Did Kraglin wander off on his own? I quickly dismissed the question, remembering the captain’s attitude towards him when he contacted him earlier.  


“We’re almost ta the coordinates that Quill gave. We should be seeing ‘im soon. From there we’-” The captain turned towards Kraglin and had noticed me in the process. I narrowed my eyes at him. He was blue with an orange mohawk. His long overcoat hung to the floor. I started up a low growl. I know that as Kraglin’s superior, he deserved some respect, however, I needed to let him and the rest of the crew know that I wasn’t going to put up with anyone’s shit.  


“What is that?” the captain maintained eye contact with me, not backing down. Commendable.  


“I bought it on Knowhere, Cap’n. The vendor said it’s really strong and smart.” Kraglin replied. “Once trained, it’ll be a useful tool when scavenging.”  


The captain kept his unwavering gaze locked onto me. I increased the volume of my growl, which drew a nudge from Kraglin. I flicked my eyes over to his for a second to find them full of anger. I toned down my growl and lowered my head, still keeping my eyes on the captain.  


“It poses any problems and it’s gettin’ destroyed immediately.”  


Kraglin nodded as the captain turned back around and watched out the window as we approached two figures floating in space.  



	3. Plans - Kraglin

After the rebellion shown by my new pet, I was surprised that Yondu didn’t order me to dispose of it right then. I was partially to blame, I should have kept it in my ship until it was ready to mingle with the rest of the crew. As Yondu hauled Peter in the ship, along with the other we saw outside of the Collector’s tower, he gestured to me and a small group to go down to retrieve them.. My cat followed close behind me as I led the four others down to the cargo hold.

“Where is that thing from?” J’vul asked me with a tone of contempt. Her and her mate, Horuz were always criticizing Yondu’s decisions and I didn’t really care for either one too much. J’vul was one of the very, _very_ few females allowed on the ship, and that was only based on her mating to Horuz. How Horuz even managed to find a mate is totally beyond me, he was pretty contemptible inside and out.

“Terra.” I gruffly replied. I was just waiting for her to say that me being to keep the cat was the worst thing Yondu’s allowed.

“It’s not going to be wandering around our bunks is it?” Gr’jrl’s question had an air of uncertainty about it. He was always a bit more timid than the others, still one of the newer members.

“No, I’ll put it in my personal quarters.” One of the many privileges of being First Mate was getting personal space. It was small, yes, but came in handy at times like these.

J’vul looked down at my cat. “Looks weak, but rather tasty,” She grinned and nudged it with her gun, which was quickly swiped out of her hands by the cat’s massive paws. I saw claws extend and then promptly disappear once the paw was placed back on the floor. Was it just my imagination? The cat let out its strange threatening hiss again, its ears pinned back again and tail lashing.

“Don’t do that again.” I stepped up next to the cat and stared into J’vul’s shocked face. I knew that J’vul and Horuz could cause problems that could get my cat destroyed if they antagonized it. “Just leave it be, or you will answer to me.”

After issuing this order. I swiftly continued to the cargo hold, walking around J’vul as she bent down to grab her gun. I saw Ardig snicker at her as he passed her by. Upon reaching the bay door, I aimed my gun, preparing for any kind of attack from Peter. While waiting for the door to open, my cat came up and wound around my legs, not growling for once. The doors opened and Peter instantly looked over to us.

“Welcome home, Peter!” I greeted him with a smirk. The five of us then went over and grabbed the two prisoners to bring them before Yondu.

While escorting Peter back up to Yondu he noticed my new pet. “Kraglin, why is there a panther following you?”

I was confused. “Panther? I thought it was a cat.”

“A panther is a kind of cat,” Peter explained. “Although, this one looks different from the pictures I’d seen on Earth. Just watch yourself, they’re really dangerous and wild, probably not the best choice for a _pet_.”

I glanced down at the creature being discussed; it let out a soft growl at Peter’s words. "C'mon, pal!" I pleaded at it under my breath. I didn't want it getting into any more trouble than it may have already caused. The black cat looked up at me and ceased its threat. The look it gave me afterwards was one of pure annoyance. How much of our conversation could this creature actually understand?

The captain ordered two other crew members to restrain the woman, Gamora, and I took my position by Yondu's side. I chuckled to myself as we endured the same chastising speech given to Peter, who actually argued back a little this time. Right when Yondu was about to teach him, and the crew, a lesson Peter revealed a way for us to get the stone back in our possession. I was rather skeptical at first, and I could tell that Yondu was as well. After reaching an agreement of sorts to work together to save my home planet, we were lurched forward as our ship was hit by something.

I looked at Yondu who gave me a look to follow him and we both bolted to the window above us, my cat quickly trailing us. We burst through the door to see Peter's ship, The Milano, hovering in front of us. Tiny flares were firing off and glancing off our ship's hull, giving us nothing more than a small shake with each impact. The panther by my side tensed up, its tail curled around one of my legs, and started emitting its low growl yet again, as it kept wildly looking around, presumably for something to attack.

"The shot was not damaging at all, sir." Our main flight controller, Ardig, laughed.

A voice rang out, informing us of a demand to return Peter and Gamora. As the furry creature started to count down from five, Peter flew forward to relay his safety. Within minutes The Milano was in our cargo hold with its three passengers holding conference below us. As the time came to listen to the grand plan that they had to share I listened attentively while watching the screen.

"You, Kraglin, and Rocket will blow a hole in the side of The Dark Aster, at which point, Yondu and I will enter."

Wait a minute, "Won't there be hundreds of Sakaaran soldiers inside?"

The shirtless musclehead next to me responded fearlessly with, "I think of Sakaarans as ‘paper people.'"

I found this wonderfully hilarious and gave him a friendly hit on the arm, while laughing. He responded by glaring at me in such a way that my smile was instantly replaced by a look of fear. This was worsened when my cat decided to lunge forward with a huge growl a take a swat at Drax. Drax gave a bewildered look at he looked down at his hand. Snagged by the claws (wait, these mysterious claws again?) tiny pinpricks of blood started to well.

The imposing man let out a bellowing laugh. "Such dangerous company you keep! This one is fearless, I see!"

"That dumb thing is weirdly loyal, watch yourself pal." Rocket chimed in from where he was standing near the screens.

My cat flattened its ears and aimed a hiss at the small creature. I sighed and reached forward to grab my pet by its collar to stop it from flinging itself towards Rocket. Truth is, although it was starting to seem as though the panther would protect me from any threat, it still made me nervous. It was so wild and a little unpredictable but, being First Mate, I had to seem in complete control of it. As I held onto the spiked leather I was a little surprised when I felt its growling subside and the creature calm down.


	4. Truce - Sonia

When I saw that brutish looking man threaten Kraglin like that, I felt an overwhelming urge to put myself between them. Although still angry at the fact that he owned me, I knew that he was my one protection on this ship. If the rest of the crew were to have their way with me it wouldn't take long for them to devour me. I had no doubt in my mind that I could take quite a few of them down, but in the end, I would be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. I didn't even want to think of what would become of me if they found out what I actually am. Kraglin had already defended me to the crew a couple times, So regardless of my feelings towards the man, I knew that I was safest by his side.

Once the crew was dismissed we still had a few hours before reaching Xandar, where the true mettle of this alliance would be tested. Kraglin took his place near the captain's side, having received no further orders. I noticed a strange scent coming off of him, not quite fear but tinged with it. 

"Cap-" Kraglin started to speak but was instantly cut off by Captain Yondu. 

"You best get that thing under control before I throw it offa this ship." Ha! I'd like to see him try! I voiced my annoyance at this remark with a soft growl, not my usual throaty rumbling, but enough to get my point across. The captain glared down at me, "This is ‘xactly what I'm talkin’ about." 

"I know, Cap'n. I'm going to properly train it after this mission." Kraglin looked slightly defeated, good, serves him right for thinking I was some pet.

"It might be beyond reason, and if it is...." the captain knew his point was made.

A flash of recognition crossed Kraglin's face and he steeled his reserve and nodded. "Yessir."

I was a tad nervous, but nonetheless followed my 'master' to his M-ship in preparation to launch the attack on The Dark Aster. Kraglin approached his ship and prepared to board and I felt a twinge of panic, I just now realized what staying by Kraglin's side fully meant. I didn't do too well with acrobatic flying, and I sensed a lot of acrobatic flying in my immediate future.

Kraglin boarded and I gingerly followed him into the main flight deck, nervous of what it would be like upside down. Kraglin sat in the main pilot's chair and swiveled around to stare me down, hard.

I glared back at him down with the same intensity. "You understand everything I'm saying, don't you?" 

I turned away and flicked my ear at him. So he figured out the loophole. Tivan's rule about buying sentient beings. If the sentient being won't give its permission, it was not added to the Collection. Although a rare creature in this part of the galaxy, I wasn't going to sell myself to live in a box, I have been sold enough times already.

"That's what I thought. Okay, you and me need to come to a truce then, because you will get thrown off of this ship otherwise." I continued to look away. "Or eaten."

I gave him a glare out of the corner of my eye at that last remark.

“Partners?” Kraglin held out his hand. I flattened my ears back in annoyance and opened my mouth in a silent hiss, I wanted him to get a good, close up look at my fangs. The fear scent intensified, but Kraglin didn’t show any signs of being afraid. Commendable. I raised my massive furred paw and rested it in his hand. This was the first partnership I’d been offered, it’d be interesting to see how it would play out.

After Kraglin triumphantly shook my paw he gripped it tighter and prodded at it with his other hand. I started to growl and remove my paw from his grip, until he shot me a look. Continuing to hold my ears back, I allowed him to investigate my apparently fascinating paw.

After a few seconds he seemed to find the source of his curiosity in my retractable claws. "Aha! I knew I saw claws at some point. Can you control those?" His excitement was like that of a small child. I let out a small sigh of resignation and took my paw back to demonstrate how flexing and stretching could extend the claws. He seemed really pleased that we were having a bit of a conversation and I could sense that he was much more at ease after our ‘truce.’ It had been awhile since I’d been owned by a Xandarian and I quickly remembered that they were a more tactile species than others in the Galaxy. It must be the physical connection through my paw and his hand causing my ability to pick up on his moods and I quickly reclaimed it. Being touched in any way made me drastically uncomfortable anyways.

Once Kraglin’s co-pilot, Jax entered the ship, Kraglin motioned me to a chair in the back portion of the ship. I gave a slight jump and sat down on the leather seat. Kraglin went to buckle the safety straps and I, just have had a look of panic on my face as he said, "You're going to want these later." I felt my pupils dilate and resisted the urge to let out a pitiful mew, there was no way that I was going to show him how starkly terrified I was.

 Kraglin shot me a look of concern before taking his place at the pilot's chair, well damn, he must have picked up on my anxiousness. Jax missed most of this exchange, but still looked fairly confused at my being strapped into the back chair. Kraglin offered no explanation but instead launched the ship out into the open sky, preparing to follow the rest of the Ravagers' army as we approached The Dark Aster. At Captain Yondu’s mark, we took our position off the side, prepared to break off to shoot the ship’s starboard side.

The first mini-heart attack of mine happened when we took the steepest dive that I thought possible to position ourselves underneath The Dark Aster after we had the cover provided by the large blasters to our right. I was scared to death, but I knew that I had to retain all of my mental capacities. I could not afford to lose consciousness now, so instead I tried to make a Happy Place in my head.


	5. Sky Battles - Kraglin

I maneuvered the ship under the cover to start my first mission of tearing a hole in The Dark Aster’s side. Even with three of us, the side took a bit longer to give in than I thought it would. “Come on!” I growled under my breath. After we managed to break through enough for Yondu and Peter to enter the warship, I steered the ship to loop around to give cover. 

As we dipped and and flew around the oncoming ships I heard the thing that I fear most come over the intercom. Yondu had been hit and was going down. There was a reason that him and I weren’t co-pilots, one of us needed to survive to lead The Ravagers. I swallowed back my sadness and fear at the result of Yondu’s ship hitting the ground and focused at the task at hand. I still needed to provide cover for the surviving members of my team, and help Peter’s ship reach The Dark Aster.

Just when we thought that it was a lost cause, the Nova Corps suddenly appeared to come to our aid. With them assisting us in shooting down as many Necrocrafts as we could, Peter’s Milano soon burst through the hole that Rocket and I had made in The Dark Aster’s side. 

I was slightly relieved that at least that part of the plan was working itself out. Once I was able to get closer to ground I’d have to think of a way to locate where Yondu’s M-Ship went down to see if he survived it. Something inside of me told me that he was still alive, and furious at not being able to be up here with his crew.

Jax and I (mostly me, it’s my ship after all) continued to fly the ship around, sniping off Necrocafts where we could and avoiding the Necroplast that was being hurled in all directions. Once the city had been cleared, the Nova Corps positioned their ships to try and block The Dark Aster and keep it locked in the sky. We all knew the consequences if Ronin were to make it to the surface of Xandar with the stone.

The divebombs towards the city that quickly followed were really more of a nuisance than anything. Rocket seemed to think that he was currently in command and told us to fly to the surface and shoot the Necrocrafts before they reached the city. Realizing now that every single order had to be approved by me first, I quickly thought it over and decided that defending Xandar in its entirety would be the most advantageous and I ordered The Ravagers to head to surface. 

On our descent, I managed to catch a look at my cat seated behind us. It was looking around wildly, its pupils so dilated that only the smallest sliver of gold remained. Its ears were completely dropped to the side of its head and it looked absolutely terrified. Maybe we shouldn’t have done so many loops and acrobatics.

I handed flight control over to Jax, “Don’t do anything crazy,” I told him as I unbuckled and headed to my cat. Realizing that I was moving about the cabin, unstrapped, Jax tried to make his control as smooth as possible. Considering the circumstances, he actually did quite well. As I approached my cat, I could see that it was trembling and letting out a constant low growl. It looked up at me when I approached.

Returning its hard stare, I reached down to unstrap it from the seat. “If I let you leave the ship to go and find the Cap’n, will you return with him?” The growling ceased as the strange creature stared at me with intelligent eyes. The pupils contracted slightly as it calmed down a bit. “You can track, can’t you?” The cat gave a slight nod of understanding, as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves that I had recently borrowed from Yondu and forgot to give back. “If he didn’t survive the crash, bring something of his back.” With this final order I manipulated the switch to open the back hatch and my cat bolted out.

After watching it go, I quickly made my way back up to the front of the ship and resumed my role as lead pilot. As Jax and I shot down the oncoming Necrocrafts, I had a brief thought if that was going to be the last time I see my cat, but quickly dismissed it. We made a truce, realizing that it’s sentient and needing to be spoken to like a person made me see it in a totally different way. What did I pay 50 thousand units to get myself into?

I had to quickly turn my mind to other thoughts however, as the relentless swarm of Necrocafts never ceased in their assault. I concentrated on firing down every one that crossed my sight. For whatever reason, their returning fire seemed to be horribly aimed as our ships didn’t require any sort of escape maneuvers to avoid being hit. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with any more losses today, until I looked over to see Horuz’s ship explode.

Debris flew, hitting Rocket and I’s ships creating a small fire which got in the way of my aim. Even their deaths had to make my job difficult. I knew it was awful to think of my former crewmates in such a way, but I’d have time to mourn and feel bad later; they were actually a pretty decent pair of Ravagers.

The true devastation had yet to come, it turned out, as not long after Horuz and J’vul went down, most of the Nova Corps followed suit. I stared up horror as a large portion of the most reputable army in the Galaxy burst into flames. I only have a few precious seconds to get over my horror as I still had to help protect my home planet. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Jax was still staring up, his one good eye transfixed on the series of explosions happening kilometers above us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm dragging it out, it's just not in my writing nature to tell this story any other way. Thanks for hanging in there! I'm trying to make up for it by uploading two chapters a week.  
> ~F2tM


	6. Fetch! - Sonia

I was rather shocked when Kraglin came over and released me from the ship. I understood that he wanted me to find the Captain, and I get that as First Mate, he’d have a lot of responsibility thrown on him if said Captain was dead; however, this was my chance for freedom. I agreed to the tracking and took in Yondu’s scent off of the gloves that Kraglin presented me. I resisted the urge to wrinkle my nose at the intrusion, that was exactly what I expected his scent to be. I had caught hints of it earlier when we were in the same room, but this was different. Underneath the overwhelming scent that was Kraglin’s, it was all Yondu. 

As soon as the hatch was opened I bolted through it to fall a few feet to the solid ground. I crouched down low for a few seconds to make sure that I had clearance before running off towards the edge of the city. No matter my choice from here on out, I needed to get away from the divebombing. During my frantic run away, I had time to consider my options. 

The obvious choice was to just straight up leave. I had no loyalty to Yondu or The Ravagers and I was tired of being owned by idiots who didn’t respect me. I paused, Kraglin did respect me. Yes, at first it was of an absolute fear of me, but now it seemed that there was a bit more there. The way he viewed me changed a lot once he realized the full implication of Tivan’s rule and where I fit into it. Could it be possible that he could eventually see me as an equal?

As much as I doubted it, I still had such a small handle on how to exist has not-a-panther that I didn’t trust myself in human form, that I personally agreed to return to Kraglin. l knew that I would have to protect him to protect myself, but I still weighed it against the alternative and found it preferable. 

To be blunt: I didn’t know how to act like a human, and Kraglin promised protection on his ship, especially if I found our captain, (“Our?”) There was still no telling as to what would happen if anyone were to find out what I was. As much as I hated to admit it, I would fare better staying with Kraglin than I would taking my chances on this planet. So for now, I would retrieve our captain and return to him, at least until I could pass as a human.

I wasn’t too thrilled at this discovery but nonetheless, I trudged through the forest surrounding Xandar’s capital with my ear pinned back. Seeing the wisps of smoke rising from beyond the trees gave me a clear course to begin my investigation. As I sped off in that direction, I realized what a relief it was to be among the trees and grass again. As I neared the site of impact, the smell of burning things was growing stronger. The grass, the metal, flesh, I could smell it all. The flesh part concerned me greatly. I racked my brain, trying to remember if Yondu had had a co-pilot. I found nothing. Fearing the worse, I made my way to the edge of the clearing.

The first thing I saw sent a wave of relief through me: Yondu was scavenging among the wreckage, retrieving a small figure from the pile of burning rubble. The Necrocrafts had already descended upon him. They emerged from their ships, weapons drawn, and advanced on the captain.

“Yondu Udonta! Order your men to turn on the Nova Corps!” One of the maskless Sakaarans shouted, aiming his gun straight at Yondu.

In response, Yondu opened his long overcoat and began a long, shrill whistle. My ears were already pinned back, but they were still bothered by this pitch. I remembered it from earlier when he was threatening that other Terran, Peter, the arrow seemed to respond to this particular sound. Without warning, Yondu let out a different note that was short and direct and the arrow pelted forward towards the Sakaaran. Following its commands of chirps, the arrow made its way around Yondu, killing all of the surrounding Sakaarans and even penetrating the nearby Necrocraft. 

I was speechless (had I been capable of speech at that particular moment). I knew that there was something to be said of that arrow, since even Kraglin had shied away from it earlier in the Eclector. Not visibly, but I had sensed his fear, everyone’s fear of Yondu when this particular arrow had emerged from his person. After Yondu had tucked his arrow back into his coat, I emerged from the woods and hissed, to announced my sudden appearance. I didn’t fear that arrow, I had no doubt that I could swat it out of the air before it even got close enough to graze my whiskers, but I wanted to let Yondu know that I was in the area. 

As I planned, Yondu looked over to me at my signal and I continued my approach. I had to make sure that he was unharmed. Yondu had a smirk on his face as I got even closer.

“Running his errands for him now are ya?” Yondu let out a rough laugh, I growled in my displeasure.

“You definitely have a pair on ya, that’s fur sure, where is he going ta land?” Yondu shot a toothy grin my way, I was unamused.

Flicking my ear away from the crash site, I started to creep back the way I’d came when we saw The Dark Aster come plummeting towards the surface of Xandar. I looked over at Yondu, quite technically, he was my captain, accepting Kraglin as my owner confirmed this and technically I should await his orders before charging off at full speed towards the site.

“Tha’ can’t be good,” Yondu commented, not quite taking his eyes off of The Dark Aster’s descent. He glanced down at me and saw my agitation. I knew he was alive, that was half of my mission, but I was suddenly itching to see if Kraglin had survived this new threat. I had a feeling that Yondu could see my anxiety as the next words out of his mouth were “Go on ahead, juss’ leave a path for me ta follow.”

At these words, I bolted at top speed through the forest, purposely crashing into as many small bushes and trees as I could. Even with the foliage to slow me down I made it to the edge of the city in record time (I presume, since I doubt there was another creature who inhabited this planet that could match my speed). I burst forth from the trees and looked out across the landscape. 

From where I was standing, the city looked mostly unharmed, which I knew wasn’t true. I tried to locate the river that Kraglin had been heading towards when I jumped ship. I hissed in annoyance when I couldn’t instantly locate this either. I was about to leap forward when I suddenly remembered that my main goal was to see the captain safely to his crew. I had abandoned him. I hissed again, in greater annoyance, before leaping back into the woods and speeding along my path to find Yondu. Was this what it was always like having people depend on you? How bothersome…

I met up with Yondu’s shocked face not halfway back, he was making good time on his own, but it was still too slow. I let out a low growl and swooped around behind him to work my way through his legs until he was sitting in my back. As I stand about waist level to the shoulder he was able to sit comfortably, and my collar afforded a great place to hold on to as I suddenly lurched forward into the brush. I wasn’t going to let Kraglin down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know. I write short chapters. Sorries. Fun Fact: My favorite color is silver.  
> ~F2tM


	7. Reunions - Kraglin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Delay, I know. Finals are over though. So I can continue work on this shipwreck of a fanfic.

Once we saw The Dark Aster plummet towards Xandar’s surface, I immediately looked around at the oncoming ships. Rocket’s last request, before throwing himself headfirst into the Kree warship, was to stop the oncoming assault from the Necrocrafts. After a few minutes of the creature’s impact, all of the Necrocrafts dropped from the sky of their own accord, leaving the Ravagers clueless. I instructed all of our ships to break surface and exit, right before The Dark Aster started to freefall out of the sky for the surface of Xandar.

 

I told the Ravagers to hold their position, unless that position was in The Dark Aster’s path, of course, and wait for further instructions. I racked my brain to try and figure out what Yondu would do. After the warship hit ground, it was much clearer; we had to break surface and try and retrieve that orb from Peter.

 

We left our ships and walked on the planet’s surface towards the center of the destruction; The Dark Aster’s impact site. I knew that this mission was worthless if we couldn’t get that orb. No payday for us. The crew looked to me for guidance as we made our way towards the ship.

 

It was a bit of a longer walk than I’d thought and I deeply hoped that Peter and his crew hadn’t fled with the orb before we had a chance to reach them. As we got closer I saw a giant purple forcefield surround the place where we were heading. I slowed our pace but continued until I realized that I could go no farther, for fear of being hurt or even killed.

   

Peter was having some intense showdown with Ronan, I noticed as my Ravagers and I approached the area. I was a tad nervous, but figured that I would wait until it was over, to avoid injury, we’d already lost Horuz and his mate, (no big loss in my opinion) and I didn’t want to lose anyone else unnecessarily. As I neared the outer edges of the battle scene, my panther came bounding over, shoving over any Xandarian brown nosers. Yondu was not far behind it. I was so relieved at the sight of him but couldn’t show it as more than a customary head nod towards my beloved Captain. My panther came and settled down by my side, I set my hand on its head in thanks. The lack of growling or hissing told me that it understood that slight gesture of affection on my part. I figured that anything more would be seen as unsightly on either of our parts.

 

After it was apparent that Peter had retrieved the stone from Ronan and destroyed him, Yondu stepped forward.

 

“Well, well, well. Quite the lightshow. Ain’t this sweet,” Yondu kept moving forward while the Ravagers and I stood on the edge of the crater made by the stone’s power. “But you got some business to attend to, before all the nookie-nookie starts.”

 

Peter looked heartbroken at the sight of Yondu, so unlike my own feelings, I mused. Gamora looked over and begged him not to hand my captain the orb.  
   

“You gotta reconsider this Yondu,” Peter was begging at this point, something none of us had seen. “I don’t know who you’re selling this too, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corp.”

 

“Oh, I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as Hell ain’t one. Now hand it over, son.” Yondu locked eyes with Peter and extended his hand. Peter sighed and gave up the orb, slapping it in Yondu’s hand. The Captain laughed and motioned us towards our ships, after directing the flow of the crew, I hung behind to ensure our captain’s safety. As everyone else filed out, my panther and I hung around until Captain Yondu had saluted at Peter and sauntered off before we followed suit. We made our way back to our ships.Captain Yondu and I looked out of the main hub window of my ship as Jax took us into the atmosphere around Xandar and then out into the outer populous of the planet.

 

“That boy will always worry me,” Yondu stated. “It seems like we did right by him, though.”

 

“Yeah, Quill turned out okay. Probably a good thing we didn't deliver him to his dad like we was hired to do.” I mused at the Captain.

 

“Yeah, that guy was a jackass!” Was the reply I got. I snickered as my panther wound around my legs protectively. I absentmindedly put my hand on its head and it settled down; sitting by my side, its tail would around my legs. I felt oddly safer with it by my side.

 

Once my M-ship was safely stored in the hangar, Captain Yondu and I made our way down below to where the rest of the crew was gathered around, ready to hear our end of mission debriefing. Yondu stood in the middle of the haphazard semicircle created by his crew. I stood behind him with my panther still dutifully at my side. I found that I was much less afraid of the animal now that it had successfully completed a task for me. This thing's uses would no doubt come in extremely handy on scavenging missions. Things would be much easier now that I knew that I could just talk to and reason with it directly.

 

With no opening statement, Yondu thrust the hand with the orb into the air. Following my lead, the crew let out a throaty cheer. We had just achieved the biggest pay day that any of us had ever seen. Yondu flashed his toothy grin around the semi-circle to make sure we all knew that we played a part.

 

"Ya did good, boys! We lost a few in that last battle, but they didn't die for nothin'! We got the stone back from Quill, and it’s gonna big money from here on out!" Yondu laughed and tucked the orb away in his coat and headed for the brig.

 

Taking this as a dismissal, the rest of the crew and I headed towards the galley. Heavy, celebratory drinking was in order. We'd all escaped death today and succeeded in securing an Infinity Stone. During the short walk, Jax caught up with me, his organic eye looking bright as ever.

 

"I can’t believe how lucky we were today!” he let out a huge grin.

I smirked back, “And it was every bit worth it too!” My cat had started up its growling again as Jax had gotten closer to us. It nudged its way in between us and Jax jumped back in alarm as it touched his thigh. It shot him a snarl and I shook my head. The galley, and booze contained within, could not be further away.


	8. Celebration - Sonia

The crew was in high spirits after they left the atmosphere of Xandar. There was a lot of cajoling and laughter and I was busy trying to dodge everyone. In their high spirits and wanting to congratulate Kraglin for his excellent job stepping into Yondu’s shoes, they all seemed to forget about me. I yowled my annoyance at them and scuttled off to the side, careful to keep Kraglin in my sights.

 

Once we made our way to the galley, many of the Ravagers went off to the kitchen to fetch alcohol while others made themselves comfortable in various places. It was unlike any galley I’d seen, it was more of a meet-up area with a few tables filled with maps and other charts. Yondu immediately sat in the biggest chair in the center of the room. Kraglin stood around talking with his team mates for a bit. I found a nice bit of wall to sit with my back to and stand guard.

 

When the first round was served, Yondu and Kraglin were served first, and the rest according to what I had first assumed to be rank. It turned out that after the captain and the first-mate, order wasn’t as important and it was more of a free-for-all. One of the younger Xandarian Ravagers with longish black hair on one side of his head kept eying me. As drinks were consumed, I was more and more nervous that I would be getting more attention than I’d prefer.

 

Sure enough, this little punk of a Ravager approached me. He crouched down and grinned at me.

   

“Wassup lit’l kitty? Not joinin’ in the festivities?” He slurred in a baby voice while smirking at me something fierce. I let out a decently volumed growl while baring my sharp, white teeth at him.

 

“Aw, is the lit’l kitty too young to join?” The little bastard! I was once a pet for a prominent Stygian family, I could drink the little shit under the fucking table.  
   

“Arvo! Git back from’im!” Kraglin slurred from a nearby chair.

 

Arvo laughed at him, “The nice lit’l kitty ain’t gonna hurt me!” He wasn’t looking as he reached his hand up to my head, but Kraglin was and he bolted towards us just as I took a swipe at Arvo.

 

If Kraglin hadn’t somehow reacted quickly enough, Arvo’s arm would have been mine. Instead my claws managed to snag most of his sleeve, taking it with them before sliding effortlessly into Kraglin’s hand. I retracted my claws as soon as I saw Kraglin intervene but I still drew a few pinpricks of blood as they grazed across the back of his hand. He held his hand up to his face to inspect before wiping it against his pants. Arvo looked absolutely terrified as his scuttled away to a small group of younger Ravagers.

 

I shot a hiss in his direction as he left my range. Ears still pinned back, I glared up at Kraglin, how dare he interfere! That little snot would have deserved what he’d gotten! When I spied his hand I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. I’d hurt the one I’d sworn to protect. Suddenly, I was surprised at myself, why should I care if I hurt Kraglin or not? I’d definitely done worse to previous owners of mine. However, I’d instinctually drooped my ears a bit when I’d felt my guilt and Kraglin responded by resting his hand on my head.

 

“He likes ta see where the boundaries are.” Kraglin smiled as he ruffled the fur on my head, which instantly caused the hairs on my spinal cord to raise in alarm. “You’re good, pal.” With that, he walked back to his chair. I followed him, if he was going to continue drinking, I wanted to keep a close eye on him. He seemed to be a bit sloshed already. Jax stood up and Kraglin proceeded to tell him of my near-extraction of Arvo’s arm. Jax started laughing in response, the rush of adrenaline and alcohol made Kraglin giddy enough to start laughing along with him.

 

“If you hadn’t stopped it, we coulda called ‘im ‘Arm’o!” Jax snickered, before bursting into intense enough laughter to render him incapable of even standing.

 

Kraglin followed suit, highly amused by the thought of a new nickname for Arvo. They both then tried sitting in the chair at the same time. Kraglin, being more centered, made it into the chair while Jax was unceremoniously dumped on the floor next to him, they both increased their laughter tenfold. Interested, I stood by observing them.

 

With all of the alcohol in the room, Jax’s fear of me seemed to have abated much since we’d walked into the galley and he slid a mug over to me. Some of the liquid sloshed out and splattered on the floor.

 

“Good try, kitty!” He grinned at me in a non threatening way, cheeks flushed and natural eye beaming as his breathing returned to normal. I glanced back to the corner where Arvo was glaring at me and smirked in return before taking the mug in my jaws and swallowing its contents in one go. Jax redoubled his laughter as he held his sides, gasping for air. Kraglin looked down at me with a strange expression on his face.

 

“It never occurred to me t’offer ya any, sorry ‘bout that!” he offered me his mug as well. I leaned forward and the distinctive smell of Xandarian whiskey hit my nose. There were only a few alcohols that I didn’t particularly like, but I get them all down in one way or another. I looked up at Kraglin’s eyes once more before draining this mug as well. While I was setting the mug down on the floor, Kraglin suddenly reached forward and seized my paw. I instantly tried to pull it back, only to relinquish it to him.

 

“Jax! Lookit this!” Kraglin excitedly said. Jax leaned in close as Kraglin put pressure on my toe, flexing it forward and drawing my claw. Jax looked at me with a shocked look on his face. I sighed and flexed all of my claws for him, causing him to jump back in fear and wonder.

 

By now I had gained the attention of much of the crew as they started gathering closer, exclaiming in my taste for alcohol. They all still thought I was some dumb animal, so it was very entertaining for them to feed me booze. Before I knew it, I was having numerous shots and mixed drinks thrown at me for my drinking pleasure. I downed each one fearlessly, much to their amusement. It wasn’t long before I started to feel the effects, these Ravagers sure had good stuff!

 

After an aggressive round of shots of Stygian rum, which many of the Ravagers couldn’t handle, much to my amusement, the crew started to disband and stagger back to their bunks. A few had already passed out in the galley, they were stepped on now and then by a rather drunk crewmate. Kraglin shakily stood up, glanced down at Jax snoozing peacefully in his chair and motioned for me to follow.

 

After watching him dangerously stagger a few times, I was at his side, trying to support him. I was fairly drunk as well at this point, and also finding it a bit difficult to balance my own self, even with four feet. Together, with Kraglin pointing the way and occasionally taking the lead, we stumbled our way to his personal quarters. Kraglin instantly collapsed face first on his bed, reaching up to hug the pillow. I drunkenly looked around the room, there was a messy work desk up against one side, a pile of clothes in the corner and few personal knick knacks thrown about. The scent of Kraglin hung heavy in the air and it calmed me, making me sleepy.

 

Kraglin flipped over on his back and (with extreme difficulty) began shucking his boots and pants. He lay there for a bit, seemingly collecting himself before sitting up to remove his coat and shirt. He laid back down and giggled at himself while I jumped up on the bed beside him. It had been such a long time since I’d slept on anything so comfortable. Kraglin turned in my direction and threw his arm over me, absentmindedly playing with my soft fur.

 

“I think tha’ you’re gunna be the bess’ friend I ever had.” He managed to say before falling into a deep sleep, his face pressed into my coal-black fur.

My alcohol-addled brain had just finished processing this when I realized that I was purring. I just had time to feel shocked before I followed him into oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit longer and hopefully with some decent character development. Alcohol is a great excuse for light silliness.  
> ~F2tM


	9. Reveal - Kraglin

My head was pounding. I lightly groaned and pawed at my head, while slowly cracking my eyes open. I was in my bed, in my own room. How had this happened? The memories of the past night were so fuzzy and mixed together. I sighed and rolled over, pulling my pillow over my head. My hand brushed against my cat’s fur and I started to lightly pet it. It was dumb, but I was in so much pain that touching something so soft felt soothing. I then threw my arm around my pet and my bare arm with greeted with nothing but skin.

I bolted upright, much to the protest of my head. I had to close my eyes a sec while resisting the urge to yell until the pain subsided enough for me to look at what was in my bed.

My eyes were filled with the sight of a young, Terran woman. She had olive skin and black hair that was nearly as long as she was. She was laying on her back with her arms up by her chest on either side, her chest which was completely bare. As was the rest of her. And I had hogged the blanket all night.

I was still drunk. That had to be the only explanation. I was drunk and hallucinating. I slowly laid back down and propped up my head on an elbow while I tried to muddle out what had happened during our post-war celebration. Had anyone brought out any drugs? I couldn’t remember. I couldn’t even remember making my way back to my room. Had Yondu gotten us a woman? That didn’t seem likely. While the Captain was a fan of the females of most species, he didn’t like it when we brought them on board. Once in awhile a crewmember managed to sneak one on, but when discovered, they were quickly discharged and sent planetside. Sometimes they were passed around or Yondu at least exercised his right as captain to its fullest capacity.

As I was trying to work this out, I noticed that the girl in my bed was wearing a familiar looking collar. This fact finished registering as I caught the shine of gold. I brushed aside some of the long black hair to reveal the golden hoops trailing up and down her ear. Huh. That’s odd, those look just like….

My eyes widened as I realized who this woman was. She chose this moment to stretch her arms up towards the top of the bed, thrusting her chest forward (at me) in the process and let out a satisfied moan. Oh god, this wasn’t going to end well, even in my pain-ridden hungover state I could feel myself…. responding. She reached up and clutched her head.

“Oh fuuuuuck…..” she groaned. Her eyes flew open at the sound of her voice and she bolted forward as I had just done a minute ago. After a few seconds of hunching over in pain, she glared back in my direction. “What did you do!?” she snarled accusingly. Her eyes were a curious greenish gold. When I took too long to answer she shivered slightly before grabbing the blanket and pulling it over herself.

My head exploded in questions. In the haze of my hangover the first one to surface was: “Are you cold?” I always felt like I was boiling after a night of savage drinking.

“I usually have fur.” she replied, giving me a blank stare.

If not for the fact that I was currently talking to my pet, I might have laughed. The shock was still a little too fresh and my head hurt too bad to move faster than a scallusc’s pace at the moment. My brain (and body) was also still hung up on the fact that she was extremely pretty. It had been a long time since I’d been able to bed anyone. I slowly sat up and sat cross-legged next to her.

“Do you have a name?” I asked next, realizing that I probably should have asked this first.

“Sonia.” She replied, holding the blanket closer to her chin. “How much did I end up drinking last night? It’s been a long time since I passed out.”

“Is that why you changed!?” I asked excitedly. There was so much I wanted to know, including what the fuck she was.

“I shift back if I fall into too deep a sleep. I’ve not gotten a full night’s rest in weeks.” She explained, in that calm even voice. I noticed that her eyes were greener now that she’d calmed from her earlier panic. I was rather impressed. If I hadn’t slept for that long I would be no where near as quick reacting and alert as she had been since I got her. Wait, I still owned her. She was mine. I bought her for fifty thousand units. A lethal giant cat that turned into a beautiful naked woman. Best purchase I’d ever made. I giant smirk crossed my face.

Sonia looked at me warily, slightly leaning away. On impulse I reached for her face. She didn’t react until I leaned forward and my lips touched hers.

Suddenly I was flat on my back. “What the-” I started, but was cut off by an animalistic growl. Sonia glared down at me, her teeth bared, and sharp and her pointed ears sticking out of her head, drawn back in anger. She had one hand on my left shoulder and the other raised above my neck. I could just barely make out black claws at the end of each finger.

“What are you doing?” She growled. Her pure golden eyes smoldering in rage. Well, I found my cat, she was still in there.

I sputtered, trying to find the words. “I own you.” I managed to spit out. Sonia let out a disgusted sound before letting me up. As I sat up, she crossed her arms over her chest, slowly, the claws retracted and her fangs disappeared. She let out a sigh.

“I have been off and on the trade market for 18 years.” Sonia started. “Sold as what?” I asked. She shrugged, “Salve, pet, concubine.” I eyed her, suspiciously, there was no way she’d been sold as any sort of sex slave if she reacted in that way. She narrowed her eyes at me in return, “I have killed a few of my previous owners, and severely injured many, many more.”

I considered this. “How many of them men?”

“After I matured, my buyers were almost exclusively men. Before then, it was a lot of families thinking I’d make a cute, fun pet.”

Despite the pain, I let out a laugh. I clutched at my sides as my head threatened to split open, but the idea of Sonia being a family pet was just too funny when pictured. A memory pushed its way into my brain.

“Wait a minute!” I exclaimed, causing Sonia to flinch in alarm. “Oh relax, I’m not mad. I’m an idiot. I just remembered how you almost took off Arvo’s entire arm last night.”

Sonia blinked at me. “He was going to touch me. He’d also insulted my age and drinking abilities.”

I let out another chuckle, “Well, you sure showed him!”

Sonia narrowed her eyes, “I was once owned by a prominent Stygian family that frequently met with dignitaries from other planets.” She said this with a hint of pride. That explains how we both got so hammered last night.

I paused to think about her first response to aggression though. She seemed to be fine with me touching her, as long as I didn’t try anything. I wondered how much physical contact she’d ever had that wasn’t inappropriate or violent. Deciding to test my theory, I quickly leaned forward and held her to me in a simple hug.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about my writing. I don't really like this chapter that much, but I'm not sure how I can make it better.  
> ~F2tM


	10. Conversations - Sonia

I froze.

This wasn’t an attack, and he wasn’t trying anything lewd, based on his previous expression, general body language and scent. His scent that was currently flooding all of my senses. It’s calming effect on me was just as alarming as my utter and paralytic confusion to this situation.

I uncrossed my arms, which were awkwardly crammed up against his stomach. After a few seconds of rigidity, I started to relax. He was warm, I guess Xandarians ran hotter than even shifters. Unsure of my actions I slowly reached my hands up his back and returned the gesture. Recalling an early pre-galaxy memory of when I was young.

Kraglin ended the embrace after I’d returned it. He grinned at me, knowing full well that he got away with something that many have been injured for. He grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around me before spinning around and locating his pants. I was still confused as I watched him dress.

“I’m getting some water and food, I’ll grab you some too.” Kraglin announced before walking out the door.

My mind raced in his absence. What the fuck just happened? I vaguely remembered my father and brothers hugging me many times as a child. I hadn’t realized that other creatures in the galaxy did that as well. I’d always been under constant threat since I’d left Earth. I’d witnessed camaraderie, sure, but sheer affection in this manner was just unheard of. At least not outside of mated pairs. I hope he didn’t think that’s what we were now.

I shuddered, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and glanced over to the pile of laundry in the corner of the room. I launched myself across the room and started to rummage through the heap of dirty clothes. Most had been worn more than multiple times, but I managed to sniff out some that had only been used a few times or more. Kraglin was much taller than me so I had to cuff the pants at the edges and the soft, grey, cotton shirt I’d managed to dig out from under all the red was very loose and baggy. The clothes made me look even smaller than I already was.

I was in the middle of trying to locate a feasible pair of boots or shoes of some kind when the door suddenly flew open and Jax walked in.

“Kraglin, did you-” He froze at the sight of me.

I leapt at him, slamming my fist into the button to close the door before my presence was noticed by any others and quickly pinned Jax to the adjacent wall. His natural eye widened in fright at my bared teeth.

“Who are you!?” He managed to sputter out. He tried to sound all tough and imposing, but I knew better. Although the Ravagers were well-known in the Galaxy as being hard-core and people you’d rather not tangle with, Jax didn’t appear to have been with them long enough to fully adopt the attitude. I knew he could be cowed easily.

“Sonia, you tell anyone, anyone, that I’m in here, and I’ll shred up your other eye and feed it to you.” I growled at him and shifted my fangs to make my point.

The growl and the fangs tipped him off enough and I saw recognition flash in his eye.

“Y-you’re Kraglin’s pet, aren’t you?” he asked suspiciously.

“Yes, and I only listen to him.” I reminded him. Well, I was more likely to listen to him. I thought I’d heard a sound from the other side of the door. I shifted one of my ears to press against the door and could hear someone passing by the door, the metal earrings softly hitting the door. “There’s no one out there now. You better leave.” I punched the door switch again and threw him out.

As the door began to close I quickly noted that my long, black hair was about to get shut in it and I yanked it out of the way. I took a moment to assess my appearance. It was usually a luxury that I couldn’t afford as most of my experiences left me scraped, bruised, hair-mussed, clothes ripped and looking relatively crazy and disheveled. Good thing I never found any shoes, I’d unconsciously shifted my feet so I could grip the metal grating with my claws. My hair surrounded my entire body, ending at my upper calves. I had never cut it, I didn’t spend enough time in human form to really care about it. I decided that today, I would try and tease out enough of the knots to do something with it.

I still didn’t want to cut it. As a small child on Earth, everyone had always complimented me on my pretty, long hair. Call it stupid, but I felt that I had to keep it except my bangs, I always hacked those when they got in my way. I scooped my hair around my shoulder and sat cross-legged on the bed as I set to work repeatedly running my fingers through it. It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. I shifted my claws out to aid in the process. I was only just getting started when Kraglin came through the door, carrying two bowls with a canteen hung around his arm on a strap.

“I just had a strange encounter.” He announced once the door had closed behind him.

I said nothing. I just kept fumbling with the knots in my hair. I could smell the food from where I sat and my stomach growled. I looked over at him, expecting him to hand me a bowl. He kept looking at me, expecting me to explain myself. I felt that I shouldn’t have to. I did what was needed to keep mouths quiet.

Kraglin sighed and sat down on the bed. He grabbed a piece of fruit from one of the bowls and bit into it. So neither of us were going budge, it seemed. I reached for the second bowl. I hissed as Kraglin swatted my hand away.

“I needed to be sure that no one else knows what I am yet.”

“Why?” Kraglin asked, throwing me my own Hanabian pear. I viciously bit into it, partially shifting my fangs to get the fruit into my mouth faster.

After swallowing I replied, “I don’t know what will happen once word gets out.”

He paused chewing to consider this. I quickly devoured the fruit then continued with my hair. I’d finished combing it out the best I could without a brush. I doubted if I’d be able to find one anywhere on this ship. Ironically, Arvo might have one, he had the longest hair of any Ravager I’d seen so far and seemed to care about his hair. I’d smelled some sort of gel.

I tried to remember the pattern I’d seen some females wearing in the past. There was this one that seemed simple enough and it seemed to turn the hair into almost some kind of cord. That should keep it out of the way. I sectioned my hair into three even parts and started the under-over process of twinning it together, as tight as I could manage. When I’d reached the end, Kraglin handed me a small piece of cord and I tied it off. Good, that was done.

I grabbed the canteen with no resistance from Kraglin and took a swig, relieved to find normal water. Feeling immensely better, I laid on my side, hand holding my head as I swiped the bowl containing some kind of stew in front of my face. Kraglin copied my position, his eyes locking onto mine.

“I see you went through my laundry.” Kraglin observed. He seemed to be about as good with talking as I was.

“These were the cleanest ones I could find.” I explained.

“How could you tell?” he seemed intrigued.

I shrugged, a difficult feat while in this position, “I used my nose.”

He made a face, “Terrans can smell that well? Peter never seemed to be able to pick up anything other than the most powerful of smells.”

“Even in human form, I retain a lot of my panther skills, it’s what being a shifter is all about.”

“So are you always going to be in this form now?” Kraglin’s brow furrowed as he asked this question. I could tell it was weighing on his mind.

“No. I can change at will.” I’d finished the stew and set the bowl off to the side on a small table nearby. “I can’t relax much in this form anyways.” I’m generally a pretty paranoid person as it is, just not jumpy about it. “I feel safer as a cat.”

Kraglin nodded in understanding, finishing his breakfast and dropping his bowl into my mine, leaning over me in the process. It was still unnerving having him this close while in my human form. He settled back to how he was before and closed his eyes for a minute to think. This was interrupted with a knock on the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! *plays spooky music*  
> ~F2tM


	11. Yondu - Kraglin

The knock startled both of us. Sonia seemed to be slightly more on guard it seemed, as her other ears had popped out again and her eyes erupted in gold. I sincerely hoped that whoever it was didn’t just barge in.

“Kraglin! You awake in there? I’m coming in, and I swear if you’re in yur skivvies again, imma whup yo’ ass!” Came the captain’s shout. Sonia ducked over the edge of the bed, I looked in confusion at the spot where she’d been, when Yondu opened the door.

“Oh good, you’re up.” He’d dropped the tone once the door was closed behind him. Sonia’s furred head peeked over the bed, she’d fully transformed into, what I was still considering, her original form. Yondu noted her, “Oh, it’s up too.”

I shrugged, “Yeah, I guess we were both pretty wasted last night. I don’t even remember getting back in here.” I stifled a yawn, I was still kinda hungover and rather sleepy.

“That thing helped you get back here.” Yondu gestured over to Sonia, who jumped up on the bed at her mention. Yondu gave me a questioning look, presumably about my letting it on the bed.

I shrugged again in response, “ You try getting her off.”

Yondu didn’t look pleased at my nonchalant attitude, but I didn’t feel right revealing Sonia’s secret yet,it wasn’t something we’d really had a chance to discuss and I had serious concerns about how the rest of the crew would react. As though to prove her place, she stretched her front legs out in front of her, arching her back and flexing her claws (careful not to snag them in my blankets and rip holes, thankfully) and sitting back on her hind legs. Yondu walked over to her.

“I saw  your actions last night too.” He snarled, pointing a finger in her face. 

Sonia gave a highly unamused look in response and yawned; big, sharp teeth glinting in the currently low light settings of my room. Yondu was unshaken as his finger made contact with her dull pink nose in an attempt to regain her attention. “If you ever threaten one of my crew again, I’ll feed ya to ‘em.” 

“Cap’n, to be fair, Arvo was giving her a bitta trouble.” I knew that he’d been watching the whole time, sober. It was very unlike him to have refrained from joining in our celebration, now that I think of it. Sonia and Yondu continued to lock eyes and glare at each other. I sighed, rubbing my face over with my hand.

“If’n I’m remembering right, she scratched  you in the process.” Yondu growled, still not taking his eyes off of her. At mention of this, Sonia broke gaze and flicked one of her ears in my direction.

I vaguely remembered something like that happening. I looked down at my right hand. Sure enough, there were three puckered lines running diagonally across it. When Sonia broke stare, Yondu took the few steps required to be in my range and seized my wrist so he could examine my hand. His eyes narrowed as he noted the obvious blood, but overall, the scratches weren’t deep and already healing. Yondu released my hand and stomped back over to Sonia. She looked up at his approach.

“I know that you can understand me, girl. I won’t have mutiny on my ship. You’un gonna live here, you gunna take my orders.”

Sonia instantly looked over at me, I nodded at her, indicating that she should listen to what Yondu had to say. None of this escaped our captain, who didn’t look too pleased that she seemed to be asking  my permission before his.

“She lissen to you?” Yondu asked. He seemed mildly amused.

“For the most part. We have a truce.” I explained. “You just need to talk to her like a person.”

Yondu nodded, “I was hoping you’d remember Tivan’s rule. Now, you.” He turned his attention back on Sonia, “Know that  I’m Kraglin’s captain, that means I’m yours too. I won’t have you tryin’ to kill everyone on this ship. Someone messes wichu, you can’t just kill’em. I don’ want you takin’ my men out. You’da had Arvo’s arm if Kraglin hadn’t stopped you. He may be a little shit sometimes, but I need my men usable. You got it?”

Sonia seemed to consider this before finally inclining her head enough to show consent. Yondu let out a slightly rough laugh. 

“It seems that you  can be reasoned with.” He reached out to touch her before either of us could process his sudden laughter. I was shocked that Yondu was able to ruffle the fur of Sonia’s head without her doing anything more than pinning her ears back and letting out a slight growl. “Now, nunna that, girl! Remember, you belong to Kraglin, you belong to me.”

With this final reminder, Yondu inclined his head to me and strode out the door. I could see Sonia’s fur sticking up in little points where Yondu’s hand had been. She was rigid as a board when I reached over to fix it.

Knowing that I’d have the rest of the day to myself, I decided that a nap was in order to fully eradicate this headache. I sighed and leaned back against my pillow and started taking my coat and shirt off. I paused, now that I knew Sonia was actually a woman, this changed things drastically. I glanced over at her to see her back in her human form again, leaning over the edge of the bed to grab the shirt and pants she’d shucked before transforming. She slipped these on and lay down on the bed next to me.

“So basically, I  can rough people up a bit, as long as I don’t kill them?” She asked.

“Pretty much. Yondu’s pretty relaxed when it comes to violence among the crew, so long as no one gets seriously hurt or dead. Gotta fight a bit for your place here.” I continued to take off my clothes, I had a hard time sleeping otherwise. Before I laid back down, I glanced over at Sonia, who’d rolled over on her side to face the edge of the bed. She looked so odd and tiny in my oversized clothes.

As I laid next to her, I realized that I still had a million and one questions. Mostly I was curious as why she’d come back after I sent her off. If she hated me so much, she could have just taken off. I had just opened my mouth to ask her when she decided to speak instead.

“I… regret what happened to your hand.” She said this in the same cool, even voice with which she said all things.

“Ravagers don’t apologize for their actions.” I automatically stated. It was something that Yondu liked to drill into every new member. We took what we wanted, we did what we wanted and we did so unapologetically. I’d heard it countless times, and as First Mate, I was used to repeating it to new crewmates.

“Good, because I fucking wasn’t.” Sonia snapped. I heard a soft growl but she didn’t budge, she remained with her back facing me. I started to laugh. Man, this one was stubborn.

“You’re going to fit right in!” I chuckled.

She sat up and looked over her shoulder at me, a mildly confused look on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might change this later. Stared at it for a solid five minutes before deciding against it. I'm too busy at the moment.  
> ~F2tM


	12. Crew - Sonia

I didn’t know why he was laughing so hard at my outburst.

It was interesting to me that he found me so amusing. I didn’t know that Ravagers could be so fun loving; regardless of what I’d seen the previous night. As far as owners went, Kraglin laughed more than my prior ones. I paused to consider this in the larger scheme of things. Yondu had laughed a lot at me too. The bonds of brotherhood seemed to be very strong between a lot of the crew.

Since I gave up my chance at freedom for an opportunity to teach myself how to act human, I tried to see how I could work these strong bonds into my education. Most people had a friend or two, it seemed. Kraglin and Yondu appeared to be great friends, even in front of the crew, Yondu treated Kraglin with more respect than one would expect, even when the First Mate was concerned.

By now, Kraglin had calmed his laughter and was watching me, a little warily. I wasn’t picking up any fear-scent from him, but at the same time, he seemed to be a little on guard. Did he think I was going to hurt him again?

At the thought of my actions last night I glanced down at his hand, and when I noticed the scratches, a wave a guilt unexpectedly washed over me. I wanted to avoid Kraglin getting hurt at all costs, and it was a deep source of shame to me that I had caused him any harm after placing him in my charge. I wasn’t used to having to look out for anyone but myself.

“Sonia,” Kraglin started. My name sounded so … normal rolling off his tongue. “Do you hate me?”

I glared at him over my shoulder before laying down and turning to face him. “I want to.” I replied.

Kraglin looked blankly back at me. This wasn’t what he expected to hear.

“But you don’t?”

I sighed, “Unfortunately for me, I don’t.” I wanted to hate him with every fiber of my being, but so far I couldn’t find any good reasons to, other than him being my owner.

“Good.” He seemed to relax, closing his eyes in an attempt to sleep. Now that he knew that I didn’t hate him, he was, rightfully, confident that I wouldn’t kill him in his sleep. Although that did bring another thing to mind.

“WIll you teach me how to fight?” I asked.

Kraglin’s eyes opened a crack to study me, presumably to see if I was being serious or not.

“I’ll train with you later. I needed to get a training session in anyways,” he said simply, before closing his eyes again. Before long, I saw the subtle changes of relaxation as he fell into a deep sleep. I wondered if he was still feeling hungover. Since I was, I assumed that he was too, thus the want for a nap.

I yawned, feeling my teeth slightly shift. Damn, I really needed to get a better hold of myself. I lay on my side, studying Kraglin’s face for a few minutes before drifting off to sleep.

 

***~^0^~***

When I woke up, my first thought was that I was in the bed alone. I sat up, supporting most of my weight on one arm as I looked up wildly. Kraglin was sitting over at his desk, hunched over. His head was in his hand, fingers laced through his short mohawk. He glanced over his shoulder at me when he heard the blanket rustle so loudly. He stretched before standing up and grabbing his red coat.

“Thanks the gods, I need a break.” He said in an exasperated voice. I got up and walked over to the desk. There were a bunch of charts and scribbles scattered all over it.

“Yondu’s giving me a couple solo missions, as well as one with him and a small group. I have to try and come up with some other tactics and see if I can find any problems with Yondu’s plans. It’s taxing.”

I nodded in agreement, shuffling some of the papers around to see others underneath. Beyond the fact that they were star charts and maps of planets, I couldn’t make too much more of them. Pulling on his boots, Kraglin flinched.

“Oh, I probably shouldn’t let you see those. The details aren’t ironed out yet so no crew members are supposed to see them.” He said.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what they mean anyways.”

Kraglin looked over at me sharply, hands suspended over his boots with the laces in-hand.

“How?”

“Well, I get the planetary maps. I don’t know which planets they’re for, but I can tell that they’re maps.” I said with a hint of pride. I wasn’t  stupid.

“A couple of them are moons. And the names are written in the corners.” Kraglin had a realization, “You can’t read.”

I shook my head. “How was I supposed to learn?”

Finished with tying his boots, Kraglin stood up and motioned for me to follow. “Let’s go get you some boots from storage and head to the training area.” He turned and headed for the door.

Oh shit, I was leaving the room like this? I was about to say something and protest, but Kraglin seemed very confident and sure of this decision. He’d seemed as nervous as I was about the crew at first. Alas, I had made up my mind to trust him. At least a little. He must have had some kind of epiphany. I’d just have to keep my wits about me, in a pinch, I could always shift.

Together we strode out the door and I followed Kraglin down the hallway. The metallic innards of the ship let out small creaks and groans as it carried us through deep space. Even the halls were very open and spacious, (yet, rather unwashed as my nose told me,) looking up I spied crossbars and cables running every which way. There was a reason the inhabitants of this ship were always fully dressed, it was fairly cold in here, surrounded by metal on all sides.

We didn’t pass anyone until we got closer to storage. The other crew member, a skinny Kree/Xandarian  youth with longish pieces resembling hair falling towards his shoulders, inclined his head towards Kraglin in a respectful greeting. When his gaze fell upon me he stopped short and stared. When he extended his arm towards me, in what I assume was an attempt to capture me, I let out an animalistic growl, flashing my sharp, shifted teeth.

It was enough to make the other Ravager flinch back in surprise, but also enough to alert others to my presence. I looked up past Kraglin, (who was giving me the sharpest of looks) to see the Nav guy heading our way. He must be on a break of some sort. He also must be a rather high-ranking member of the ship, because he was the only curious party to confront Kraglin about his new possession.

“What is this?” he asked, nodding towards me with his gun, “We haven’t been planetside since Xandar. I don’t recall any Xandarian women boarding the Eclector at that time.”

Kraglin shook his head, “She’s not Xandarian, nor was that when she boarded.”

“It’s a Terran!” Exclaimed a taller Ravager with many small eyes running up and down the sides of his face. He was standing right over me, instantly I stepped a little closer to Kraglin, I could tell this one had identified me by scent, and I was seeing drool starting to form. I bared my teeth and let out a growl, feeling my claws emerge. “Maybe we’ll finally get a taste once the Captain hears about your new pet, Kraglin.”

“He already knows about her. And if you really want a taste, remember that she almost removed Arvo’s arm last night.” Kraglin warned in reply.

There was a small movement among the crew as mutters were exchanged. The Nav’s eyes widened slightly, pinning my identity. The Ravager that I’d just growled at backed away.

“Quill couldn’t change form like that…” The Nav mused slowly.

“That’s because Peter is entirely human.” I replied, crossing my arms. This drew numerous confused stares from the crew. Did they really not think I could talk? I felt my ears shift, and I drew them back in annoyance. I tilted my head up a little higher and proclaimed, “I am a pureblooded werepanther.”

“And remember that she’s still mine, ya fuck with her, ya have to deal with me.” Kraglin said firmly before continuing his way to the storage hold. After a few paces and warning growls and teeth flashes at curious crew members, I followed closely behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know, sooo much longer than Kraglin's chapters. It's accidental, I promise.  
> ~F2tM


	13. Training - Kraglin

We were almost in the clear when we heard a voice shout out.

 

“What’s goin’ on here? Why’re you all millin’ about like a buncha lost Orlonis?” Yondu shouted from the other end of the hall, sauntering towards us.

 

If Yondu was surprised by Sonia’s transformation, he hid it exceptionally well. Of course he’d realize who she was by reading her aura. As they did before, Sonia and Yondu gave each other a hard stare, before Yondu asked.

 

“What are you doing?” 

 

The question could have directed at either of us. I took the liberty of answering it.

 

“We were heading to storage for proper outfitting before going to the training area.” I stated bluntly.

 

Yondu took in Sonia’s ensemble before ordering the rest of the crew on their way. This whole time, his gaze never leaving her eyes. I was rather impressed in how long she held her ground, after these first little bumps, I was pretty sure she’d be a full-fledged Ravager in no time.

 

After the crew had dispersed, Yondu flicked his gaze between the two of us. I could tell he was unhappy that we’d put him in this position. 

 

“I ain’t never had a unmated woman on my crew before. Not full time. There have binna few who tried over the years, but they… didn’t make it.” Yondu fixed his gaze on me. “You train’r, and we’ll see what happens.”

 

I had kind of expected that. I relayed my gratitude to him before he strode off back the way he’d came. We were near the end of the hall when I heard him roar at Glinv. I sniggered to myself at how lightly we’d gotten off as opposed to Glinv’s minor transgression of just “millin’ about.” I saw Sonia give me a sideways glance at my laughter.

 

Once we reached storage, it didn’t take long to find gear to better fit Sonia than mine. She wasn’t the smallest Ravager we’d ever had, after all. After clothes were settled I handed her a curved silver knife. She stared at it in return.

 

“Take it.” I prompted.

 

“No silver.” Was the simple reply that I got.

 

“Why not? You’ll need to to practice. I know it’s not the most durable thing in the galaxy….”

 

“No silver.” Sonia repeated, her pale green eyes narrowing.

 

I sighed. She still didn’t trust me as much as I thought.

 

I threw the silver knife back into the bin and rummaged around until I found a steel one with an iron hilt. I tossed it in her direction.

 

Grabbing it out of the air, Sonia continued to scowl at me as I led her out of the room and into the training area. It was really just a room with a bunch of weighted equipment and a few targets. If we did any hand-to-hand combat, it was with a sparring partner. It was one of the most open spaces on the Eclector though, so it was most suitable for training.

 

I put her through some of the easier training paces, to get a feel for where she needed the most help. Her speed and agility were exceptionally well, she had no problems dodging my advances. Her biggest fault seemed to lie with weapon-handling and aim. She’d never shot a gun before.

 

I wasn’t ready to practice grapples and holds with her until she felt more comfortable being around me. Attempting one of those might land one or both of us seriously injured if her instincts kicked in too hard and I ended up with claws to the face. So, for the meantime, we did some light hand to hand combat. I showed her some stances and put her through the motions of bare-handed fighting, a useful skill for anyone to learn in case you lose your weapon. After quite a few runs of those, I handed her a practice gun.

 

“What if I miss?” Sonia asked suspiciously.

 

“They’re practice guns. They don’t fire anything. They use sensors to indicate aim and they simulate the kickback of a real gun.” I explained. 

 

Sonia nodded and took aim at one of the targets across the room. It was just a simple circular target, very standard and non-moving. It was on the other side of a holofield so the trajectory of the shot could be tracked and marks could be made on the target. At the press of the trigger, it was very apparent that this was one area where Sonia needed the most practice as her shot didn’t even land the target.

 

“And that’s why we use practice guns.” I chided, grinning at her.

 

Sonia didn’t look amused and she took aim again and again, each time failing to land a hit. I stood back and watched, pinpointing her mistakes for later correction. It didn’t help that with each failed shot she got more and more frustrated. 

 

I stood behind Sonia and took her hands in mine, feeling her breathing increase. I noted that she was a bit warmer than other species I’d encountered, almost at level with my own Xandarian temperature. At least she didn’t tense up as much, so I was able to maneuver her arms into position. Looking over her shoulder I held the gun in place to hit the center of the target. After a few seconds, I let go of her hands and she held steady. As soon as I was clear, she let off a round. It wasn’t perfect, but at least she hit the target.

 

Sonia looked back at me, her expression unreadable.

 

“Let’s go get something to eat.” I suggested, taking the practice gun from her hands and placing it back in its holder. Together we exited the training area and headed for the galley.

 

I was feeling full of energy when we entered the galley. Nothing like a good sparring round to get your blood pumping, and Sonia made a good partner, she learned very quickly and I just knew it wouldn’t be long until she was ready for a two on one session. Sonia followed me over to the kitchen area to grab trays.

 

Once we had our food we headed to the mess area and sat at a table. Jax joined us soon after. I nodded at him as I bit into my trund. Sonia had picked up some of our stranger meat concoctions, and she was wise to not sniff it before tasting it. It was possibly Orloni mixed with something else. I only ate meat rarely, but she seemed to mostly rely on that, and didn’t have any problem consuming the unidentifiable meal.

 

Throughout this time, I noticed many other crew members looking over at us. I caught Jax’s eye, who looked over at the small group I indicated. Arvo had walked in among the group containing Glinv, S’haru and Vit’r. They were all a bit younger and had yet to really be accepted by us senior Ravagers. They weren’t bad, they just still didn’t understand what it fully meant to be a Ravager. They were still under the impression that it was a glory title and that joining up with us made them a badass automatically. I was kind of hoping that the Battle of Xandar would open their eyes a bit, but I’d been too preoccupied to notice.

 

Sure enough, Arvo came over as soon as he spotted Sonia. I was positive that Glinv had told him about her new form. Well, new to us. He stood behind us for a few seconds before grabbing Sonia’s braid and yanking it back; hard.

 

“We have business to settle, bitch.” Arvo growled, still holding onto her hair.

 

I instantly stood up, blaster pointed at Arvo’s head. Sonia slowly followed me upwards, slowly and deliberately turning, I caught a glimpse of her greenish gold partially shifted eyes. Then her lips parted as her teeth grew long and pointy. With her black furred ears on top of her head, the overall effect was creepy.

 

None of this was lost on Arvo as he backed away. A couple moments later, he regained himself and leaned towards Sonia.

 

“You don’t scare me. You’re not a member of this crew and you won’t last long.” 

 

Sonia let out a low growl, shot out a clawed hand and grabbed Arvo by the collar of his shirt. She spun around and pinned him to the table. Arvo clutched at her hand, attempting to dislodge it.

 

“Don’t touch me,” Sonia hissed. “Others have died for less.”

 

A sharp whistled cracked through the air and suddenly, Yondu’s Yakka arrow was pointed right at Sonia’s face. She flicked her ears back and slowly released Arvo, standing up as he scuttled away to the side, his eyes locked onto Yondu in fear.

 

“What’s going on in here?” Yondu roared. 

 

No one said anything. Even Arvo knew better than to tattle on Sonia and it seemed that she knew the same. With a lower pitched whistle, the Yakka arrow returned to its holster at Yondu’s side. Yondu crossed his arms and looked me down hard.

 

“Arvo and Sonia still have an issue, it seems,” I carefully explained. 

 

“Resolve ‘em.” Yondu curtly ordered, his eyes flickering from Sonia to Arvo.

 

Instantly the two faced each other. It seemed that Sonia had a bit more respect for Yondu than I’d first thought. Arvo held out his hand, after a moment’s hesitation, Sonia took it and the two shook.

 

Satisfied, Yondu turned away to get his own food, but not before saying, “I never want to see you two goin’ at it again, ya gottit?”

 

After that, Arvo silently walked back to his small group without any further looks in Sonia’s direction. We sat back down to resume eating.

“Good thing Cap’n stepped in,” I said after a few minutes, Sonia looked over at me as I continued. “If things had escalated more I might have had to loan you my blaster and then everyone  but Arvo’d be dead.” I grinned over at her. I thought I could see just a hint of a smile on her lips. I nudged her, “Right?” I widened my grin, rewarded at last with a small smile from Sonia.   
  
**Fun Fact: I'm good at singing.  
~F2tM**   



	14. Conflict - Sonia

After we’d finished eating, Kraglin had his rounds to go over while Yondu ate. It seemed as though one of them was always on guard. As we toured the Eclector, Kraglin showed me all the important parts, including the way to the brig, the M-Ship hangar and the showers. A while later we were joined by Yondu himself.

“You know how to pilot a ship, girl?” he asked me.

 

I shook my head. “I was usually branded cargo for short flights and have never been on a ship long-term.”

 

“Huh.” Yondu replied noncommittally, “We’ll fix that at some point.” 

 

With that, he strode off. I watched him go, a little confused. Kraglin looked over at me and shrugged.

 

“I should go talk to him about a few upcoming missions. Go ahead and wander.” 

 

Without any further instructions, Kraglin was off the same way that Yondu had went. I stood there, a little unsure of what to do or where to go. It was the first time I’d let Kraglin out of my sight since he’d stepped on my tail on Knowhere. It wasn’t that I wasn’t used to being alone, it was that I didn’t trust any of the other Ravagers and I knew that my continuing survival on this ship rested in Kraglin’s hands. I was hopelessly outnumbered with no way to flee if I had to.

 

Pushing aside the little nagging thought to follow Kraglin, I turned and made my way back to the training area. I couldn’t spar by myself, but I could practice shooting again, which seemed rather important to the crew members here, all of them had at least one blaster. Some, like Kraglin, had two or three.

 

As I passed a few crew members scattered around the ship, they gave me sidelong looks. Most didn’t seem particularly aggressive towards me, but a few narrowed their eyes. I bared my sharp, shifted teeth back at them. I wasn’t afraid of them in the slightest.

 

Without incidence, I found my way back to the training area by backtracking along Kraglin and I’s scents. Having spend the night in his room, Kraglin’s scent stood out like a lighted beacon to me, making it incredibly easy to follow. He had the most distinctive scent I’d ever encountered, a fact that I would have to dwell on later when I wasn’t concentrating.

 

Stepping into the wide area set aside for training, I made my way back over to where the blasters were safely stored away. There were a few other Ravagers using the area for hand-to-hand combat, with some light weapon-use. A couple were wielding long metal sticks and using them to both block and attack. It looked interesting, although it was doubtful that I’d get to learn anything like that anytime soon. A few other Ravagers were already using the fake guns to get in a little target practice. I walked over to the storage and forced myself to remember how to open it and retrieve a practice blaster of my own.

 

Of course everyone had seen me walk in, but that was nothing compared to their increased interest in my shooting skills. Feeling more eyes on me than necessary, (one of the Ravagers had about eight,) I stilled my nerves, pushed down the heat I felt creeping up my cheeks and calmly walked over to the holofield. Blocking out the faces surrounding me I raised my blaster and steadied it before squeezing off a few rounds. 

 

As predicted, none of them hit the target. My dismal shooting drew quite a few snickers and sneers from the other crew members and I hissed in annoyance at my own embarrassment. My ears flew back and my nostrils flared as I brought up my blaster to eye-level and tried again.

 

One of my shots managed to hit the target this time, which was a sad improvement. I was trying to analyze my last two attempts and find a difference in them when I heard a Ravager approach.

 

Figuring he was there the mock me, I ignored him and raised up my gun a third time. Eyes firmly locked on the simple target, trying to will my rounds to find the center.

 

“You’re too tense.”

 

Almost letting off a shot in alarm, I whipped my head over, and then up, to face the Ravager. He was taller than even Kraglin, although still seemed to be Xandarian. His shaggy hair was a sandy brown with a matching moustache, and he had a big scar running from above his left eye down to his ear. He seemed older than Kraglin, but Xandarian ages are still difficult for me to predict since they are so vastly different from Terrans and I haven’t spent much time around them, despite them being the most widespread race in the galaxy.

 

As I continued to lock eyes with him, I narrowed mine. I didn’t appreciate the criticism, but I did need to learn how to do this. Turning to look again at the target, I considered his advice about being tense. I relaxed a little, realizing that I was, in fact, stiff as a board. 

 

“Unlock your elbow.”

 

I flicked my ear at him, to show I understood and did just that. Relying more on my muscles than my bones to support the gun was strange at first. After a few seconds of adjustment, I raised the gun and sighted the target. The first shot landed further inward than all my previous attempts. With my unlocked elbow, slight adjustments were easier to make in the course of letting off four or five rounds. I hadn’t quite hit the center mark, but the improvement was remarkable.

 

Lowering the blaster, I looked up at my new tutor. He was giving me a haggard grin. Quite a few of his teeth were gold, like Yondu’s. My ear twitched in amusement at his apparent pride in my shots.

 

“Kraglin’s a decent shot, but definitely not our best. He’s not the greatest of teachers either.” My mysterious mentor commented.

 

Letting out a low growl, I chose to ignore him yet again and threw up my gun in the shooting position. I paused to force myself to relax before firing towards the target. If I’d been using a real blaster, the target would have been demolished. Not only did I hit the center mark, but all of my shots landed very close to each other. My best shooting so far.

 

I cautiously glanced around me to see that the other Ravagers in the room had mostly gone back to their own business once my helper had approached me. A couple were still watching in rapt interest, but at my look, went back to their own shooting. Although I had improved drastically, the other Ravagers still put my shooting to utter shame. 

 

“Don’t worry ‘bout them none,” the older Ravager said, setting his hand on my shoulder. 

 

Without stopping to think or consider the consequences, I instantly clasped his hand in both of mine, whirled around, twisting his arm as I went. In two steps, I was behind him, his arm twisted awkwardly over his shoulder. He let out a muted sound of pain and I growled intensely. 

 

I heard the approach of other Ravagers and before long, felt multiple pairs of hands on me as they dragged me off of my prey. I lashed out fiercely, hands instantly shifting into paws as my claws extended. They hooked into an arm and left a deep gash as we all backed away from each other. Blood welled up as the brutish looking Ravager shot me a look full of hatred and fury. As the squarely built Kree advanced on me, I took a couple steps back to end up against the metallic wall of the training area. 

Slightly panicked, I kept shifting. Before long, my clothes lay in a ripped and crumpled heap at my feet. I let out a savage roar, lowering my head and snarling viciously. I wanted to make it fully clear that to come any closer meant certain death. Many of the bystanders backed up at this challenge. I felt my fur spiking in all directions and knew that I must look like a cat possessed. The Kree, however, looked excited at the prospect of this battle and took a few slow steps closer to me. 

 

Just as I was about to lash out, the tall Xandarian stepped forward to block the advance of the Kree.

 

“Enough, Bardil.” He commanded.

 

“She drew first blood, that means we must duel, Tajuun.” Bardil motioned towards his wounded arm. I redoubled my growling when he threw a nasty look down at me.

 

Tajuun stood his ground between the Kree and I.

 

“We both know, that would end in death. Yondu would be most displeased at the victor,” he calmly stated.

 

It looked for a second as though Baril was going to argue, but then saw the wisdom behind Tajuun’s words. Looking furious at the galaxy itself, he slowly backed away and exited the training area. Tajuun let out a small sigh and looked down at me. I snarled in reply.

 

“I apologize for my earlier contact. I’m aware that Xandarians rely more upon physical touch than other species, but Peter was always okay with simplicity. It seems that Terrans vary from one another in terms of touching.” 

 

Tajuun seemed apologetic enough, which I couldn’t really understand. If I’d been human, I’d have snorted. I must have made a decent enough attempt because Tajuun started to grin. I growled in response before bending down my head to gather up what remained of my clothes. I was glad that I’d grabbed some extra sets of pants and shirts. The boots were more or less intact since I’d preemptively slipped them off mere moments before my full shift.

 

Walking back to where we were standing before the upset, Tajuun bent down to pick up my blaster, which lay where I’d dropped it in my frantic attempt to dodge a nonexistent attack. I cautiously watched him as he put it away, I knew it was fake and only worked with the holofield, but I was still wary.

The holding strap clicked shut and a moment later, Kraglin filled the doorway of the training area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will there be more conflict? Who knows?  
> ~F2tM


	15. Bathroom Blitz - Sonia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter actually requires a tad bit story-telling. For the longest time, I wasn't sure whether to include this chapter in this story at all. Once I uploaded chapter 14 though, I decided to write it down anyways and post it. So this was actually written this week (as opposed to others that have all been written a few months prior. I then had to rework chapter 16 entirely to account for this addition. (And then re-number all of my documents on google drive, and it was a bit of a pain) So I really hope this chapter seems as important to you as it did for me!  
> ~F2tM

As Kraglin got closer, I could see the anger in his eyes and, try as I might, I couldn’t hold the gaze. The whole point to staying with him instead of remaining on Xandar was to learn more about being human, and yet here I was in panther form. The first time I’m away from him on ship and I fucking blow it. 

 

As soon as Kraglin stopped in front of us, I grabbed up what remained of my clothes and skulked my way over to sit at his side. I kept my head down and purposefully avoided his eyes. I was disappointed in myself for this one. I heard him let out a small sigh before speaking to Tajuun.

 

“I passed Bardil on the way here. As always, his account of what happened is skewed and probably blown out of proportion. He even went as far as to threaten  my death for the fault of my charge. What happened, Taj?”

 

So the Kree was going to try and kill Kraglin? Because of what  I did? He better just wait until the next time I got my fucking claws on him. I felt the hair raising on the back of my neck and quickly regripped. I was letting myself get too riled up, Kraglin could handle himself.

 

I was busy calming myself through most of Tajuun’s recounting of my solo training session, but I caught enough to realize that he had a very fair and unbiased way of looking at everything. Even though he was speaking directly to Kraglin, he still told him of the errors of both sides, including mine.  Oh great. I gave a mental eyeroll.

 

“You should also be pleased to know that your pet shot a great cluster shortly before all of this happened.” Taj said in conclusion to his report.

 

‘Pet’? I almost let out a slight growl before it dawned on me that I would only be proving his point. I saw Kraglin also open his mouth as though to correct him as well, before changing his mind and letting the word lay. He nodded instead and replied.

 

“Thanks for helping her out. Glad to hear that her shootin’s improved.” 

 

Kraglin gave a slight incline of his head before turning to leave out the doorway and exiting. Without a backwards glance, I followed with the bundle of rags in my mouth. I had a couple of minutes to think while we made our way back to our ( our ?) room. Kraglin didn’t seem to be the none too pleased with me and I didn’t quite feel like explaining myself to him. I suddenly remembered that there were full showers on board. Being able to get as clean as I wanted sounded absolutely wonderful. Actually using running water and scrubbing at myself would be heaven compared to being occasionally sprayed with delouser.

 

Pleased to come to this idea, I dumped my tattered clothes in Kraglin’s room and snagged his clothes off the laundry heap that I’d worn before. He closed the door behind us and watched as I gathered the articles in a neat little bundle. He started to say something before I sauntered past and hit the switch myself, opening the door and leaving of my own accord.

 

Feeling wonderfully independant, I strode down the hall, careful to keep and eye out for Bardil. I passed many Ravagers on the way, a few of whom aimed a kick in my direction, which I easily avoided. I caught a glimpse of Arvo glaring at me from a corner, no doubt remembering Yondu’s response to our earlier tiff and refusing to come any closer. Fine by me, I just wanted to get to the showers and get as clean as I saw fit. There was still dust on my paws from Xandar.

 

Walking into the shower area, I instantly noted how unbelievably tidy it was compared to the rest of the ship. That being said, there were still a few clumps of hair and some bristles around a few of the drains. There was scum on the raised metal sheets that acted as dividers for some of the faucets, as well as some mold growing on some pipes, but overall, there was a rather clean scent to it. Whoever got stuck with bathroom duty was doing a pretty decent job, in my opinion.

 

As to be expected, there were a few Ravagers already in the process of bathing when I entered. Ignoring them, I padded over to where there was a cupboard of towels and somehow managed to snag one in my teeth whilst not dropping my clothes. Good, I didn’t need to look more a fool after my shooting display. I stepped into one of the stalls and set my things to stay dry off to the side before shifting back and reaching out to turn the handle to release the water above me. As the steam cascaded around me I closed my eyes in ecstasy.

 

It was soon over as the heel of someone’s hand connected with the back of my head, throwing my face forward. I reflexively reached forward and latched onto a pipe to keep my grip on the wet floor. I snarled, looking over my shoulder to see Bardil. He’d come out of hiding to attack me in the bathroom, it seemed.

 

“You don’t scare me, bitch. I’m going to teach you a lesson about messing with us!” Bardil accentuated this point with a devilish grin. I returned it by flashing my shifted teeth and letting out a low, deep growl that shook my bones.

 

“Keep it up, if you want. It won’t be too long before you’re using that mouth for something else,” he jeered as he stepped forward to take a swing.

 

I was ready as the arm came my direction as I dodged and shot out a clawed hand to rip another slice in his arm, spraying the divider with the Kree’s green blood. He grunted in pain as he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind me, effectively pinning me against the same surface. I felt one of his hands start to snake down my body as he leaned forward and growled into my ear.

 

“You’re not Kree, but you’ll do.”

 

My anger surged as I shoved off the divider as hard as I could, knocking him off as I spun around to knee him in the groin. I kept up the growling as my two hands shifted into black-furred paws, each bearing lethal claws. I snarled as I lashed out to rake my claws over his face. He lifted one hand to his face while the other yanked at my ankle, bringing me down to his level. He reached both hands forward and fastened them around my neck. He started to squeeze.

 

The collar pinched, adding to the intense pain I was feeling as the air was depleting from my lungs. Bardil kept increasing the pressure as I clawed at his hands, trying to loosen his grip. For a second, I thought it was working until I realized that Bardil’s attention had been drawn to Yondu standing just outside the stall. The captain was glaring at Bardil, who was caught, quite literally red-handed. Well, green.

 

Without looking down at me again, he released his grip and stood up while I forced air back into my lungs. I noticed only then that my back feet had fully shifted as well. Damn, I’d had an extra set of claws that whole time and hadn’t noticed. I growled at myself. It hurt like hell.

 

I stood up next to Bardil, as Kraglin appeared next to Yondu. 

 

“I’ve had it with this nonsense. You’ve been nothing but a thorn in my side since you boarded this ship.” Yondu said. I honestly didn’t know who he had directed this to. Possibly both of us.

 

“She drew first blood, I must now conquer this wench!” Bardil shouted, pointing at me accusingly. I snarled at the digit, as though it had personally offended me.

 

Yondu glanced over at Kraglin, who’d remained emotionless throughout this encounter, before letting out a slight smirk. “I don’t think that’ll be as easy as you think.”

 

“I’d already almost beaten this whore when you came in!” Bardil angrily replied, clearly upset that his victory had been spoiled.

 

“I saw a lot of unguarded spots, open for attack. But if you’d like another try, you’re welcome to it.” Yondu calmly stated.

 

I saw Kraglin’s eyes widen a little as he shot a look at Yondu out of the corner of his eyes. Yondu gave a slight incline of his head in reassurance. He trusted me to hold my own. Well, better not disappoint my Captain. I fully shifted and let out a roar that echoed around the room. Bardil gave a small, but clearly visible jump at the sound before whirling around to attack.

 

In my human form, there was no way I’d ever stand a chance, I didn’t have the know-how. But as a panther, I was a lethal ball of claws and teeth as I met every strike of Bardil’s with a gash of my claws. I kept my throat out of his reach at all costs, it was still recovering from the last assault. I could see him slowing as I kept dancing out of his range. As soon as he tried to pin me in a corner, I slipped under the divider and launched myself over from the other side.

Aiming directly at his face, his hands met me in the chest and tried to ward off the attack. My hind claws were scrabbling on top of the divide, trying to find purchase as my front were trying to reach around his arm. Bardil reached over with his other hand and grabbed one of my front legs. I heard the snap of bones as pain shot up my leg. I used his own grip to pull him closer to my grasp and sank my teeth into his skull, on either side of his face. As the fangs punctured his flesh, my mouth was flooded with his foul blood and he reached up at my neck again. My already sore throat gave way quicker this time as Bardil wasted no time in trying to suffocate me. It wasn’t long before my air supply was used up. In my rage, I somehow remembered Yondu as I looked in his direction before proceeding. His eyes met mine and he gave a nod before I clamped my jaw shut, crushing Bardil’s skull and putting an end to his brutal reign.


	16. Aftermath - Kraglin

I was rendered speechless. I couldn’t believe that Sonia actually killed Bardil. Part of me was relieved that she wasn’t all talk and could handle herself, but the other part of me was terrified to let her back into my room later that night. She held onto his head longer than what I thought was necessary before dropping Bardil in a pool of his own green blood. It was good thing this had happened in the showers, it was going to be a lot easier for clean-up.

 

I quickly recovered from my shock as Yondu started barking out orders.

 

“Get this body out of the airlock now. You have five minutes to get cleaned up and in my quarters, girl!” Yondu pointed right at Sonia before turning and charging out of the room. I immediately followed.

 

“Cap’n,” I said once we were out of earshot. “I want you to kno-”

 

Yondu raised a hand to cut me off.

 

“She’s got more loyalty than you think. Although, to who, I’m still not too sure,” he mused aloud. He caught my questioning look before explaining. “She waited for my go ahead before killing ‘im.”

 

I let that sink in for a moment. I had been wondering why she let Bardil almost strangle her before finally ending the fight. That explained it; she was warned against killing the crew, and she waited for permission before doing so. I was fairly surprised, to say the least.

 

“I think that after today, they’ll leave her alone,” Yondu said. I nodded in agreement, glad that Yondu was taking this so well. Bardil had been giving him a bit of trouble for a few years now, so maybe it was best that he was gone; he could never fully be trusted with missions, anyways.

  
     I didn’t see Sonia again until after she’d met with Yondu in his quarters. I was guessing that it was mostly for show, but she made no motion to tell me as we both grabbed a couple trays and tucked into dinner. Noting the obvious bandage on her wrist, I recalled the crack of bone that I’d heard earlier. I didn’t press her, knowing that if it was a big deal, I’d hear about it eventually. This meal passed by without any excitement, which was fine by me. After dinner, I headed up to the brig for the cage match that we’d put bets on a few days ago, before Xandar. Sonia wordlessly followed me and I noticed that the stares she got ranged from mild curiosity to outright hostility. None made a move to challenge her, though.

 

Forty Units poorer, (the Darbian should have won!) we headed back to my room for some sleep, before starting over tomorrow. If I was this tired from the day’s events, I couldn’t imagine how Sonia must feel. I threw my current clothes on the heap and stretched out my full length on the bed, enjoying the feeling of my muscles relaxing. Sonia kicked off her boots and sat down on the other side of the bed.

 

“You want to tell me what happened?” I prompted, supporting my head with my hand and elbow. She quickly looked over at me as though she was startled. 

 

“He wouldn’t stop hassling me. I had to stop it before it progressed,” she explained.

 

“Any by ‘hassle’, you mean….?” Gods, it was like pulling fucking teeth.

 

Sonia’s gaze darkened, “You really need me to say it?” She growled.

 

No, I guess I didn’t. I knew exactly what Bardil tried to do. I stupidly patted the area of the bed next to me, to see if she’d lie down next to me. It felt so strange having a conversation with one person laying down and the other not. To my surprise, she joined me. On her side, she regarded me with slight suspicion. Sonia’s hand was resting on the pillow, the other under her head. When I covered it with my own I felt her tense up but she didn’t withdraw it. Her temperature, only slightly lower than my own, was oddly calming. Xandarians take comfort in physical contact and we’re a very touchy-feely species, but I’d learned to curb that urge after joining the Ravagers.

 

“It won’t happen again.” I told her. I had a pretty good idea of what she’d been through and I hated what had almost happened to her today. Sonia narrowed her eyes, in response.

 

“You can’t promise that.”

 

“Yes I can. I won’t let it,” I said, stonefaced.

 

Sonia actually rolled her eyes. “I’ve been doing a pretty decent job at protecting myself so far.”

 

While I contemplated Sonia’s remark, I ran my thumb over the top of her hand. I felt her flinch multiple times, but yet she still didn’t take her hand away from mine. I looked over at her face. Her eyes were closed and she had a slightly pained expression. I could tell she was fighting the urge to rip her hand away from me.

 

“How many have you killed?” I wonder aloud.

 

She shook her head in response, opening her eyes, “I’m not sure. Most of them gave up after one serious injury. None have succeeded.” She’d answered my next question while it was still on the tip of my tongue.

 

Wait. None? I thought back to my last time with a woman, and noted the stark difference between her and Sonia. It probably helped that we had both been Xandarian, we’d been able to mutually benefit from the physicality of what sex entails. Knowing that Sonia had been sold as a sex slave and yet had never actually gotten any experience was almost laughable. No wonder the shop-keeper wanted her gone, she’d probably been such a thorn in his side. Although this line of thinking brought up another question.   
“How long has it been since you were planetside?”

  
Sonia paused, and looked over my head to focus on the wall. 

  
“Twenty-one years.”

 

I had to stop to calculate that. I remembered how quickly it was that Peter aged and I regarded Sonia a bit more carefully. Twenty-one years was a very long time to Terrans. Based on her approximate age she must have been a bit younger than Peter when she left Terra. No wonder she didn’t trust anyone, she had been bought and sold almost her entire life to creatures that she’d never seen or heard of before.

 

We laid there with our eyes locked. As I watched, her eyes became less and less gold. After a few minutes they were a brilliant emerald color, clear as the gem itself. My face split open in a huge grin. Instantly, they were flooded with gold again.

 

“Why do you do that?” Sonia asked me carefully.

 

“Because I feel like I’m doing something that no one’s ever done before,” I said with a smile. Sonia eyed me, waiting for me to continue. “Your eyes were fully green.” The look on Sonia’s face was one of pure confusion. I mirrored it. “Did you not know your own eye color?”

 

“I’ve seen myself, but my eyes were always either gold or a dark gold.”   


 

“Huh.”

 

So  she wasn’t even aware of when she was calm. Could she even recognize it? I was lost in thought as I clasped my hand around hers, feeling her tense and stiffen in response. The touch was soothing to me, after going so long suppressing my need to physically touch someone. As it became apparent that I wasn’t letting go, I felt Sonia relax slightly. Her emotional state seemed to still along with it as she let a few of her guards down.

 

“Why don’t you lash out at me?” I asked.

 

Sonia had been internally fighting with her eyes closed, at my question she opened one and peered at me.

 

“Why won’t I let anyone but you touch me?” She clarified. I nodded. “You’re the only non-aggressive owner I’ve had. The only one to show me kindness. I can tell the others’ bad intentions.”

 

“So, you trust me?” I probed.

 

After a few seconds’ pause, Sonia replied. “Some.”

 

“I’ll take it.” And with that I took her hand and held it up to my cheek. Her temperature was so similar to my own that it was like being with another Xandarian. I could feel her hand trembling against my face but still kept it there. Deciding I’d put her through enough today, I took my hand away. To my surprise, Sonia didn’t immediately take hers back, but left it on my face, slightly running her thumb over my stubble. It was almost as though it took her a few seconds to realize that my hand was gone and there was a slight surge of color in her cheeks as she snatched her hand away, rolled over and went to sleep.

 

****^0^****

 

In the next few days, I started to see a slight change in Sonia. She didn’t trail me quite as hard and the other crew members seemed to be a bit more accepting of her. Tajuun was helping her shoot on an almost regular basis now and the rest stopped giving her shit after they’d had a few rounds of sparring with her. Her wrist healed in a matter of days, which was surprising when one recalled how Peter would walk around here sporting  bruises  for a week. It was nice to be able to go back to almost normal. With the exception that she still stayed in my room every night. Yondu and I deemed it unwise to throw her in the barracks with the rest of the crew, still.

 

It wasn’t too much longer before Yondu decided that Sonia was ready to send on a mission, with my supervision, of course. There had always been this one loot that he’d never been able to score, and I knew that it bothered him greatly. It was rather unsurprising when he brought it up again, but this time he had the perfect tool to finding it.

 

I stuck my head through the doorway, catching Sonia’s eye from her latest shooting lesson.

 

“We have to go.” I informed her, instantly turning to leave.

 

Sonia was quickly on my heels, not asking any questions. Sometimes her silence bothered me and sometimes it was very useful. I stopped at the door separating Yondu from the rest of the crew. Entering a code, I calmly walked in.

 

“Where you been, Krag!? You’un were supposed to be back here a long time ago!”

 

“Sorry, Cap’n. I had to find her first.”

Yondu nodded from behind a big wooden desk, its surface marred by the years of putting up with him. He leaned over and unlocked a high security drawer before reaching inside and throwing the item inside towards Sonia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Kraglin overtakes Sonia for the longest chapter award!!! *crowd cheers*


	17. Dervani

I reflexively caught the item. It was a furry little wad of moss. I stared at it curiously before a scent wafted up towards me. It was amazing. I brought it closer to my nose to breathe it in deeper. It smelled of a bright summer’s day. Fresh cut grass, clean water and a hint of cooking meat. I inhaled further. Dirt, flowers, and a fresh breeze. It smelled of pure happiness. The further I breathed in the wonderful aroma, the more my senses were flooded with wonderful things. Before long my vision was hazy and I could hear laughter. I was giddy with delight and felt a lazy grin spread across my face.

 

Next thing I knew, Kraglin was taking the furry ball of wonders away from me. I growled threateningly and almost lashed out. I wanted it back. Kraglin extricated it from my grasp and put it in a worn leather pouch. Once the smell was sealed off, my brain began to clear and I focused to see Yondu and Kraglin watching my every movement with precision.   


 

“What the fuck  was that?” I hissed. I wanted my actions explained.

 

Yondu flashed a toothy grin.    


 

“That’s yer assignment. You two are goin’ to Dervani and tracking down more Dervish Moss. It’s very rare and people’ll pay a lotta Units to get some.”

 

“With your nose we should be able to find some easily. Especially since it overtook your senses so quickly.” Kraglin crossed his arms.

 

“I understand the feel-good part, but why would people pay so much to smell grass and wind?” I crossly asked. I felt that I was owed some kind of warning.

 

Kraglin gave me a strange look, “When this is ingested or burned it’s supposed to simulate your happiest memory. With added benefits, of course.”

 

So that’s what it was. The feelings of happiness and security. The smell of cooking food and grass. Those were all from my last day on Terra. Back when I was five years old. Instantly, I wanted the moss back more than anything. If I ate it maybe it would give me visions. I could see my brothers and father again. I gave my head a little shake to get back into my right frame of mind. No wonder this stuff was worth a fortune. I was a little frightened of trying to track this stuff in my panther form with my sense of smell heightened from where it was now.

 

However, as I tried to ask another question, my brain clicked as the laughter I’d heard fell into place. A sound I never thought I’d hear again. Suddenly, it felt like there was something stuck in my throat. I drew in breath from my nose, afraid that it’d be haggard and raw otherwise. I focused on a spot on the floor and gathered my senses.

 

“Oh great, she’s broken.” Kraglin commented. He waved his hand in front of my face. It didn’t register until after the third pass. I shot my head up. Yondu was lighting a cigar and watching my reaction.

 

“When do we leave?” I growled. I was too agitated to wait for an answer, as Yondu was about to answer I cut him off. “Now? Great.” 

 

I strode out of Yondu’s quarters without another word. Lost in my own head I raced my way down to the M-Ship hangar. I was walking as quickly as I could, enjoying the feel of my muscle working hard to keep up with me as I forced my feet forward without running. A few hallways down I managed to drag myself out of my head enough to realize that Kraglin was keeping his distance, but still following me. I slowed my pace to let him catch up.

 

“Are you-”   


 

“I’m fucking fine.” I snapped, whirling around and feeling my hair stand on end and my ears point back. Shit, guess I wasn’t as calmed down as I’d thought I was. I’d stopped abruptly, causing Kraglin to crash into me. However, he didn’t move away. He stood really close and put both hands on my shoulders. I instantly tensed up and fought every combative instinct in my possession. 

 

“I’m sorry. I was supposed to have at least given you a bit more information before walking into his quarters. I didn’t think that you would react like that to the Dervish Moss. I keep comparing your abilities to Peter’s when you’re in this form.” Kraglin’s eyes were downcast, not even meeting mine. I could sense disappointment coming off him in waves. It was so strange. I’d never been in tune with someone’s emotions like this. Then again, I’d never had much physical contact with others either. 

 

 

Still, his nearness was comforting. So I trusted my non-survival instincts and put my arms around him, tucking my face into his chest. With his scent so up close and personal I relaxed into him almost instantly. After a few moments of hesitation, Kraglin's arms surrounded me. I was surprised at how safe I felt with his warmth enveloping me.

 

 

I reluctantly broke the embrace a few seconds later, feeling incredibly relaxed and calmed. As I met Kraglin's eyes, I could see that he had taken as much comfort from our hug as I had. Unlike other owners I'd had, Kraglin was more than okay with leaving our contact at that. He seemed to crave even the most basic of contact, and I remembered what Tajuun had told me about Xandarians. He grinned at me, that stupid little shit-eating grin that he loved to flash at me, and we continued our way to the hangar.

 

 

We didn't talk much, except for a firm refusal on my part to learn how to fly an M-ship. No fucking way, I had zero interest in flying. The journey out to Dervani was really uneventful. Once the course was charted Kraglin just threw the ship into autopilot and spent most of his time studying topography maps that I couldn't read. I spent most of my time exploring his ship. I shifted a couple of times to get into some of the more compact nooks and crannies, coming out with dust all over my fur and whiskers. After the third delve, my coat was so dusty it was a very light gray color and Kraglin threw me under the spray nozzle after I sneezed one of his maps off the table. I was a little cranky after that. I'm not a huge fan of being wet.

 

 

For being such a remote planet, we weren't in open space all that long before approaching it. I was just starting to get a little drowsy when the NavCom announced our arrival. I eagerly ran up to the flight deck to look at the arboreal planet through the main window. 

 

 

The entire planet was covered in trees. As we broke the atmosphere I could see that other plant life forms had attempted to reach through the broad tops of the trees. There were vines and moss weaving among the branches. A damp looking fog permeated the entire treeline. I could also see huge fungal formations growing out the sides. It was on one of these bigger formations that Kraglin brought down his ship.

 

 

"Does anyone live here?" I asked, unable to tear my eyes away from expanse of foliage in front of me. I hadn't gotten to see a lot of natural plant life since leaving Terra.

 

 

"No, it's abandoned. The air became too oversaturated with oxygen for the original inhabitants. It should be safe for you and I, though." Kraglin had come to stand beside me at the window after safely landing the ship. "C'mon," he said, opening the door and waiting for me before jumping out.

 

 

When I landed on the fungus my first thought was of how solid it was. Next was the utter smell of nature that assaulted my nose. Even in my human form, The evidence of organic, untouched nature was all around me. I knelt down and put my hand to the warm plant under I feet. It was indeed, very firm, and it was no wonder that here was where Kraglin had chosen to land. Very stable. Suddenly a light breeze shifted the fog enough for me to catch a whiff of another scent, by it was too weak and my nose too blunt to catch it. 

 

 

Without thinking, I started to take off my clothes and shift. Being so close to nature, I fully relished this shift and took my time to feel the muscles and bones move and realign themselves. As I neared the end of my shift, I already started picking up other scents I hadn't caught before. There weren't nearly as many scents to identify as there were on Knowhere, with the multitude of differing species coming and going and the strange foods being prepared, so it wasn't too hard to start automatically sorting the scents into different categories.

 

I knew that I was supposed to be focusing on finding the moss, but that hint of a scent I'd caught earlier came back, and it awoke something primal in me. There was small prey to be hunted. I focused all of my senses on that single line and concentrated on figuring out where it was originating from. It was soon apparent that most of the indigenous lifeforms lived on lower levels of the planet, below the canopy. I scurried to the edge and tried to find a way down.

"Sonia? Did you already scent the moss?" Kraglin asked, gathering my clothes into a small pouch hanging off his shoulder. He quickly followed me to the edge and peered over with me.

It was a long ways down, but there seemed to be enough fungus growing off the treeside to allow enough of a purchase for us to scale down. Once noted, I made my way to the lower levels of the planet as quickly as I could. I had to hunt, it'd been years since I'd been allowed. Upon reaching the ground level of the planet’s surface, I drew in a deep breath, allowing for all of the new scents to wash over me.

 

I instantly caught a better smell of that tantalizing scent. I could tell it was smaller in nature, definitely alive and moving. It had passed through here but maybe an hour ago. I angled my head so I could try and discern its direction. I found the trail and took off.

 

“Sonia!” Kraglin called after me, finally reaching the ground and pelting off after me.

 

I slid through the tree trunks and underbrush as I let my instincts take over and became one with nature. The scent trail wound around a few trees here and there, and I found shallow depressions in the dirt. Continuing after it I could tell where it had a scuffle of some kind and I finally started to reach the end of the trail. I peered over a small bush to see a strange lizard-like creature. It looked a bit like a F’saki, but with more legs and a tail three times as long. I watched, whiskers twitching, and started to circle around it. 

 

I heard the padding of feet and looked the way I’d come to see Kraglin huffing and puffing after me. I instantly flattened my ears, he was going to scare away my prey! Sure enough, once Kraglin neared and caught sight of the thing, it took off into the brush.

“Sonia! Don’t go after that.” Kraglin panted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! More plot! Fun fact: I have blue streaks in my hair.


	18. Question Game

Sonia shot me a look of pure annoyance as she looked after where the krazul had ran. I froze, hoping she wouldn’t keep chasing after the poisonous creature. After a few seconds of neither of us moving, she locked eyes with me again and stood upright as she shifted. As much as I appreciated the female form, I threw her the bundle of clothes I’d grabbed from the top of the tree. Sonia caught them and hastily put them on when she noticed my gaze.

 

“I didn’t pick up any scent of the moss,” she reported, after roughly pulling the shirt down over her stomach.

 

“Care to explain yourself?” I asked.   


 

Sonia looked away. I was really curious as to what had caused her to take off without warning. It was almost like she was possessed. I wonder if I’d ever know.

 

I could feel a smile on the edge of my lips at the sight of all the twigs and leaves in her hair and I let out a slight snicker. Sonia glared at me, thinking that I was mocking her, which just made the foliage in her hair all the more ridiculous. I couldn’t hold it back any longer as a hoarse laugh burst from my mouth. Sonia looked at me curiously, at least it wasn't anger like before.  I motioned for her to come closer to me. After a few moments of hesitation, she actually abided my wishes and made her way silently through the underbrush. Just when I started to forget that she wasn't entirely human, she did something so animalistic that it all came rushing back.

 

When Sonia reached me, she stood before me, a slightly confused look still on her face. I saw her eyes flicker in fear as I reached my hand to her head. Just as I registered the look of fear, it was gone from her face. I shrugged it off to her quirkiness and started pulling leaves from the top of her head. Once Sonia realized this was all I was doing, she relaxed a bit more, did she expect to be hit or something? It wasn't  before long when I noticed that due to the length of her hair, I couldn't really wrest the foliage free with it braided the way it was.

 

"Yeah, this isn't doing shit. Its getting late anyways, let's just go back to the ship," I decided. Without waiting for a response, I started to head back to where I parked my M-ship.

 

We managed to make it into the ship without any incidence and I stood, looking over my map of the planet for Sonia said anything at all. She was sitting cross-legged on a chair with her back facing me, undoing her braid when she suddenly said:

 

"I'm sorry."

 

I froze slightly, repeating the words in my head. I slowly lifted my head up to see her staring at me, gauging my response. Her hair was almost free of its design. As Sonia continued, I walked around the table to help her out.

 

“I haven’t been allowed to hunt in a few years. The wild scent of this planet was difficult to ignore. It was speaking to my very instincts,” she explained.

 

Once I’d had the hair untwisted, I worked on removing the bits of leaves and twigs. Sonia attempted to reach up and do it herself once, but I swatted her hand away. It gave me something to do while I thought.

 

“It’s not like you to be this quiet. Are you mad?” She asked.

 

“No,” I replied. “I’m just realizing that there’s still a lot about you that I don’t know or understand.” 

 

After a few minutes she seemed to realize that I was still standing behind, at this point just combing her hair with my fingers, having already removed all of nature’s debris. Sonia started to squirm a little in the chair, clearly nervous about something.    


“Areyoudone?” She asked abruptly. It was said so fast that I almost didn’t catch it.

 

“Yeah, why? What do you think is going to happen if I keep standing here?” I wheedled, leaning my elbow on her shoulder. I was deathly curious as to her expectation of my actions, although I doubted that she’d give me a straight answer.

 

“Nothing beneficial.”

 

Ouch. I walked around and sat opposite of her. I desperately wanted to know how to win her trust, this whole closed-off routine was getting very old, very fast. I knew that she’d want a bit of give and take, though. An idea wormed its way into my head.

 

“I have a proposition.”

 

Sonia gave me a confused look. She absentmindedly twirled the end of her long hair between her fingers.

 

“It’s a sort of open-door policy,” her look darkened. “I won’t ask anything that I won’t answer myself.” I said, watching her expression change to curiosity. I had a hunch that she was dying to know about me as much as I was to know about her. “But, the same goes for you, too.” I tacked on, fair is fair after all.

 

After a few seconds, she nodded, agreeing to the terms. I gave a small smile which she mirrored, much to my delight. I figured I’d start small.

 

“What’s your favorite color?” I grinned at her, knowing it was a stupid question.

 

Sonia almost looked angry at my absurd choice before responding with, “Blue.”

 

“Blue,” I repeated. “Like, Yondu-blue?” I grinned.

 

She actually chuckled a little, “No, light blue. Like the sky on Terra.”

 

I nodded, knowing that Xandar’s sky had the same pale shade she was referring to. It was few seconds later when I realized that she was looking at me expectantly.

 

“Oh right, mine’s dark red. Like a crimson,” I answered. She took her turn nodding in response. Before I could think of a serious question to ask her she spoke.

 

“Why did you buy me?” Crafty. She asked a question that she wouldn’t have to answer herself. I wondered briefly if this was cheating, but I’ve asked her a few questions before without my answering them in return. As to this one, I was drawing a blank. Why  did I end up buying her? She was super expensive (though, worth it for the most part,) and nearly took my foot off. I shrugged at her.

 

“You were cool, I guess? I’m not sure, it was an impulse purchase.” The look on her face told me that she wasn’t completely satisfied with this answer. I ran my hand through my mohawk. “You seemed unhappy. I figured at the very least I could release you if it didn’t work out. Chains aren’t any fun to live with.” I saw her interest perk up at that last remark and she was about to ask something else before I cut her off, “My turn. How much physical contact have you actually had in your life?”

 

“And you’ll answer this too?” Sonia asked with a darkened look. 

 

I nodded, “Xandarians are very touchy, which I’m sure you’ve figured out by now. So when I was a kid I had a lot, but had to learn to hold back while on the Eclector. Every now and then we get a little leave or small groups take trips to nearby planets and visit the brothels there.”

 

Sonia broke eye contact at that. Did I hit a nerve? Was she going to reply?

 

“My family was pretty touchy-feely too. Cats like the close proximity of other cats. Since I was kidnapped, all I’ve known is pain. Everyone who’s ever reached out to me had bad intentions. I learned the hard way that it’s better to just keep my distance.”

 

I watched her curiously. She still hadn’t looked up and had a slightly pained expression on her face. It was as though she were reliving her past. I kept quiet, knowing she needed a breather if she was going to keep talking.

 

“So far you’ve been nice to me,” Sonia continued, her voice and expression darkening immensely as her gold eyes met mine. “But I can’t shake the feeling that you have an ulterior motive or that I’ll get hurt eventually.”

 

“There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?” I prompted.

 

She looked off to the side, towards the closed viewing hatch. “No.”

 

I sighed, deciding that this was enough for now, and left the main area to head to the bunk. I extended it out to fit two bodies and started removing my outer layer of clothes to prepare for bed. I could see Sonia out of the corner of my eye, watching my every move. I fleetingly wondered if she would be joining me, but something told me that she wouldn’t and not to press the issue. I continued my process and finally rewarded myself with being able to stretch out on the mattress. I pulled the blanket up and rolled on my side in an attempt to will myself to sleep.

I could hear Sonia moving around behind me, still in the main area of the ship. I rolled my eyes under their lids at her stubborness. She knew damn well that I wouldn’t hurt her, especially if  I was trying to sleep as well. After a few seconds I heard no more as sleep claimed me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short, I know. It's more of a transition chapter. Good stuff's on the way! I promise!  
> ~F2tM


	19. Nightmares - Sonia

I couldn’t help it. I just still couldn’t stand to be touched casually without my skin crawling and every instinct I own screaming at me to attack. I was hardwired at this point to be on constant vigilance for my own safety. I’d had too many bad experiences to prove that my suspicions were rarely unfounded. However, with Kraglin, I felt a little bad for some reason. I was too angry to tell him, though, I’d already apologized once today, I wasn’t about to make a fucking habit out of it.

 

I sat in the chair a little longer while he got situated in the bunk. When I thought about it, I was tired too. My stomach gave a slight groan as I realized that I never was able to catch my prey earlier.

 

I got up and went to the portion of the ship where food was stored. Vegetables. Fruit. Grain. Fucking Xandarians. I let out a hiss and tried to find  something palatable. I knew that my human digestive system could handle these things, but it’d been too long since I’d really thought about what I was eating. With a hint of resignation, I plucked a few things from the cupboard and sat at the table to eat them.

 

If I knew how to work the door I would have caught something to eat. I was hoping for at least  a little meat in-ship. I’d be sure to catch something tomorrow. Maybe if I found some of that blasted moss I’d get a little hunting time in. I would not put up with this diet for long. 

 

Stomach satiated, I felt my eyelids drooping dangerously. I glanced over to the bunk. Kraglin had made sure there was space for the two of us, but I’d be damned if I was going to crawl in there after him like a fucking lapcat, I’d had enough physical contact for today. Looking up, I tried to see if there was a place up there I could nest for the night. I found a spot where the vent and a rafter intersected so I shifted and lept up there. After securing my position, I curled up and went to sleep.

***~^0^~***

I was awoken by a slight scuffling sound. My brain clicked on, though I was still mostly asleep and I angled an ear down to better pick it up. The sound was coming from directly below me. I drew in a breath and picked up the scent of pure terror. I raised my head immediately and looked below.

Kraglin appeared to be in the throes of a nightmare. Fear was coming off him in waves and he would occasionally thrash out a limb. I watched for a few seconds, not sure if he was entirely asleep before it became obvious that he was. He let out a sound of pain that might have tugged at my heartstrings, had I thought it possible. I rose from my sleep and stretched out along the rafter. I jumped down, my pads making a slight impact on the metal floor of the ship.

 

I walked over to the side of the bunk, unsure of what to do. I knew that Xandarians were calmed by the presence of others. I growled to myself before shifting back to human form. I eyed him crossly as I slowly reached out my hand to touch his forearm. I felt his muscles flexing and relaxing repeatedly as he wrestled with what demons were hunting him. He reached over with his other arm to clasp my hand. I let out a slight yowl in response and tried to take my hand back, immediately deeming this a mistake, when he relaxed his grip and I noticed his fear-scent abating. 

 

I guess whatever I did worked. I one-handedly put on the clothes at the foot of the bunk, (his again, mine were out of range) and carefully slid into the bed next to him. As my weight depressed the mattress, Kraglin’s eyes flew open and he bolted forward. I could see his back was drenched in sweat. He wildly looked around for a second before realizing that I was next to him and that he was still grasping onto my hand. He let out a haggard sigh, burying his face in both his hands before flopping back down on the bed.

 

“Tell me about your family,” Kraglin said, his hands still pressed against his eyes.

 

I stopped to consider this request. I hadn’t told anyone about my family and I had to quickly think of the odds of him using this as an elaborate ploy to get information out of me. 

 

“I have five older brothers and a father.”

 

He turned to face me, one hand under his head. I could tell that he was waiting for me to go on. As I locked my eyes with his blue ones, I noticed a lot of pain in there, if not fear. He wanted a distraction from his nightmare. I could understand that.

 

So I told him about my brothers, Wes, Gun, Daré, Jackson and Dex. How the youngest ones were eight years older than me and how I was always protected growing up. How they were almost through with school when I still had yet to start. I told Kraglin more than I’d told anyone about myself since leaving Terra. As I told him this, I refused to let the memory of them get to me. I couldn’t dwell on them, I’d never see them again, something I’d resigned myself to a long time ago.

 

“No mother?” Kraglin finally asked.

 

“No, she died giving birth to me,” I answered. In retrospect, I was shocked at how my brothers never resented me from taking their mother from them. They chose the protective route instead.

 

As he absorbed this, Kraglin closed his eyes and I noticed then how much calmer he was. His free arm snaked up and his hand found mine again. I flinched, yet again, at the initial contact. When I squirmed slightly, he opened his eyes again.   


 

“My family was poor. I was sold into slavery by my parents so they could afford to feed my sister.”

 

This information shocked me. Kraglin always seemed so sure of himself, it was hard to imagine him in my shoes. Although it explained the tattoo, I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it for what it was earlier; a brand.   


 

“That’s why I don’t want to push you into doing anything you don’t want to do…” Kraglin trailed off. He turned onto his back and started at the metal interior of the ship. My hand was pulled away from the safety of my body, which instantly made me nervous. I saw Kraglin’s face twitch. “Claws.”

 

I hadn’t even noticed, I quickly retracted them so as not to scratch him again. I was starting to realize exactly how much I’d lucked out with my current owner. I’d managed to be bought by a decent person, yes, rough around the edges and wanted throughout the galaxy as a criminal, but still decent. I wasn’t entirely sure how to react.

 

“Thanks,” Kraglin sighed. Shit, did I nick him?

 

“Yeah,” I responded dumbly. I didn’t know what else to fucking say. I wasn’t used to communicating with my owners.

 

Kraglin shot me a puzzled look before turning on his side to face me, again. His face was really close to mine, as I’d gotten slightly pulled over. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise in alarm.   


 

“I meant for talking to me,” Kraglin looked concerned as he said this.

I tried to shrug the best that I could while laying on my side, “Yeah well, it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with nightmares.”   


 

“Sonia, don’t freak out.”

 

I immediately stiffened, feeling the beginnings of a shift. “Why?”

 

“You’re already panicking, calm down,” Kraglin kept his voice level and his eyes locked onto mine.

 

“You told me not to freak out, which means that something is probably about to happen,” I explained, trying to calm myself. I should try trusting him more. It was just too hard to break habits. “So I should probably start panicking.”

 

“Gods damn it all, you stubborn woman.”

And with that, Kraglin crossed the few centimeters of space between us and his lips met mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooooh!  
> ~F2tM


	20. Reaction - Sonia

Obviously, my first instinct was to shift. This was a full-frontal assault if ever I saw one. Or felt one. Or… or….

Damn, I couldn’t even think straight. The immense heat from Kraglin’s lips against mine lit up my brain like the 4th of July. His scent washed over me, relaxing me in ways I couldn’t even begin to describe. I felt his hand work its way up behind my head and lose itself in my hair. But that’s not what was restricting my means of escape. Something else was holding me there.

 

When he slowly parted, the stark contrast felt cold. My eyes opened to see his reaction, I hadn’t even realized that I’d closed them. Part of me wanted more. The other part was so beyond confused as to what was happening. Weren’t we just talking about our stupidly scarred pasts not two minutes ago? Or five? How long was that kiss? Fuck!   


 

As my eyes met his, all I could see was curiosity, and hunger. I couldn’t even be sure of what color mine were, much less what they were conveying. I was a split second away from leaning forward my own self when something caught my attention that snapped me back into focus. The scent of arousal. 

 

“Oh, hell no!” I bolted backwards from the bed, ended up on all fours on the floor, performed a rapid shift and scurried my way up into the rafters again. 

 

Once I reached the place I’d been sleeping, I shifted back. Since I’d been wearing Kraglin’s clothes, they managed to not get ruined in the shift and provided some padding in between me and the beam, not that I really would have noticed at that moment anyways. I panted, my body covered in a slick coat of sweat from the panic and the double shift.   


 

After a few seconds I heard Kraglin let out his hearty laugh from below me. I instantly started up a growl. How dare he mock me after that stunt he just fucking pulled. I glared down at him from my perch.

 

“What?” I snarled.

 

“At least I didn’t get clawed,” Kraglin replied, still laughing. I could see him stretching out on the bed, like kicking back after a job well done. Fuck  him.

 

Part of me couldn’t be mad, though. I’d been kissed before, unwillingly, but it had never been like that. I had never wanted more. I slowly touched my fingertips to my lips, as though I could still feel him there. I could scent him as though he were right in front of me. Instinct was telling me to climb back down. Instinct was taking that arousal scent I’d picked up and trying to make me react. Well,  instinct could just sod off.

 

It turned out, I didn’t have to approach first, as a minute or so later he was trying to clamber up onto the rafter next to me. I sighed, there was no way the beam would support us both. I shot him a nasty look, at which he dropped down, and after a few seconds I followed suit.

 

“Soni-” I held up my hand to cut him off there. I was fuming.

 

“You!” I started, and immediately lost my train of thought. I let out a loud roar, “You! Why? If you!!” 

 

“Well, this is a new vernacular low for you,” Kraglin mused, still highly entertained by my speechlessness and the knowledge that he’d been the one to cause it.

 

“Oh shut up, Mr. ‘Cap’n’s gotta teach stuff’!” I snarled. I bared my fangs as I continued to growl at him.

 

Kraglin shrugged, “I have an image.”

 

I snorted. Like that was an explanation. While I was busy pacing around the mess are of the ship, I heard Kraglin sigh and approach me.

 

“Okay, I guess that level of trust isn’t quite there yet,” he started.

 

“Just- ugh! Just don’t-!” I still could quite spit out what I wanted to say.

 

Kraglin raised his eyebrow at me, “Or maybe it  is .”

 

I just glared at him, my ears back and tail trying to trash through my pant leg. Kraglin reached out his hand towards me. I eyed it suspiciously before grasping it with my own. He grinned that dumb grin of his and led me back over to the bed. He lay back down and pulled the covers over him, flipping it over at the corner to allow me room to slide in. After a few moments’ hesitation I did, but I made sure that when I situated myself comfortably, I did so with my back to him. I wasn’t giving him another chance to pull anything. Although, all traces of the scent I’d caught earlier had totally dissipated. 

 

I felt Kraglin inch closer to me until he was able to kiss the back of my head before whispering “Sorry,” into my ear. He positioned himself so he was pressed up against my back, his arm resting on my side. I could feel his warmth seeping into me and his breath softly rustling my hair. I let out a small sigh, as much as I hated to admit it, it was comforting having someone at my back. It made me feel a bit safer in a way, especially since he was so much bigger than me when I was human. I reached up with my hand and found his, pulling it over me and snuggling deeper into the blanket. I felt his heat and muscles as he held me slightly, and I relaxed myself into his scent again, finally able to have the most peaceful sleep I’d had in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I tried to make it longer.  
> ~F2tM


	21. Coffee - Kraglin

I very slowly surfaced into the world of wakefulness. I could sense that I was awake, but didn’t want to open my eyes. I could still feel Sonia pressed against my chest and I slowly extended my arm over her and found her hand. I noticed it was furred, so I moved up her arm to learn that it was only her hand that was currently shifted. I smiled and stroked the fur on the back of her hand. After a few seconds of this, a strange sound could be heard.

I opened my eyes suddenly to see that Sonia was still peacefully asleep (or at least, she looked at way,) and there was a peculiar rumbling sound emanating directly from her. I moved my head in closer and realized that I could  feel a sort of vibrating. I propped my head up on my hand and the sound stopped as Sonia opened her eyes. She quickly flipped over onto her stomach and buried her face in her hands.

 

“What was that sound you were making?” I asked curiously.

 

“What?” Sonia already sounded slightly irritated, I wondered if that had anything to do with me kissing her last night. I regretted nothing.

 

“That constant rumbly sound. Why were you doing that?” I rephrased.

 

“Probably because I was sleeping,” she shrugged in response. 

 

Huh, I’d have to see if I could find anything out on the pad later. I’d avoided using it as A) there hadn’t been time and B) I figured it’d just be easier to ask her directly once I’d learned that she could talk, but if she was going to be secretive then I might as well bust it out. Then again, the pad has very limited information on anything to do with Terra to begin with. 

 

I fully sat up and started to get out of bed. I walked over to the mess area and started brewing some of my Xandarian coffee. We didn’t often get much of it on the Elector but I always got second dibs after Yondu. Fortunately for me, the Captain didn’t have much of a taste for it. The smell quickly roused Sonia as she let out an enormous stretch, flashing her pointed teeth and nearly shredding my spare pillow.

 

“Hey! Watch the claws!” I called. 

 

Sonia shot me a cross look before rolling off the bed and landing firmly on the floor. I sighed and sat down to study the maps of Dervani. Yesterday’s area turned out to be a bust, I had to find a new place for today. It was probably best to stay near the places where the moss had been found before. It was possible that some had grown back since then. I looked up from my map as Sonia sat across from me. She eyed the pad warily. 

 

“So, that thing is going to tell us where we’re going today?” she asked. 

 

“No, I’m telling  it where we’re going,” I explained, I watched as she slowly turned her head to face where I’d set the rest of the coffee. “Hey,” I called. As her head whipped back over to me I saw that her eyes were mostly gold. “Go grab a cup, but be careful. If you’ve not had Xandarian before it might throw you for a loop.”

 

Sonia narrowed her eyes in my direction. “What’s in it?”

 

“Um, coffee?” What did she mean? I gave her questioning stare as I watched her slowly get up and walk over to the counter. She apprehensively poured herself a mug of coffee and stopped to sniff it. She stopped short at my look of confusion.

 

“I can’t detect anything foreign.” She reported, still refusing to drink.

 

“Good gods, do you think it’s fucking poisoned?” My shock echoed around the interior of the ship. I understand that she must have had reason to believe in the possibility of poison or drugs, but I thought I’d earned a bit more trust than that.

 

Upon my shock, Sonia tilted her head back and downed the entire cup in one go. Did she feel bad for suspecting me? Was I ever going to be able to understand her better? I sighed and selected a point on the map displayed on the pad. As it locked onto that point and sent it to the main computer, I grabbed my mug and headed up to the flight deck. I settled into the main pilot’s chair and double checked the area I’d selected and then started to maneuver the ship towards it.

 

Sonia came up shortly after, she had changed back into her own clothes. I was surprised to find myself slightly disappointed by this fact. She soundlessly crossed the main deck and stood behind me as we hovered over the trees, looking for a landing spot. I could feel her almost vibrating with energy, probably shouldn’t have let her have that coffee after all…

 

After we landed, Sonia bolted out of the door without my leave. I was rather irritated about her not waiting for my order, I was her superior, by a lot. I just wrote it off to her drinking all my coffee, and watched her bound away into the treeline.

 

“Wait! Don’t run off again today! You have a mission!” I reminded her, irritated.

 

Instantly she reappeared behind me, causing me to halfway draw my gun in response.

 

“I’m waiting for you,” I could see her panther ears poking out of her thick black hair, which was starting to get pulled out of the braid already. her eyes were pure gold, but she didn’t look scared or angry, just… exhilarated.

 

“Sonia….?” I reached for her slowly, now quite sure which way she was going to move anymore. “Did you want to try looking for that moss now? We need to find some today.”

 

“Oh yeah, sure,” she replied, before extending her claws from each hand and climbing up the tree faster than I’ve ever seen a Terran move. I saw her go out on a branch about 40 or so meters up, and from what I could see she looked to be mostly shifted. She looked very strange.

 

Sonia came down from the tree a minute later. 

 

“I think I caught a whiff of it,” she shook her head, “But I’m not positive, the fog’s too thick to even begin to tell where it was coming from.” 

 

“Is there anything you can do?” I asked, I wasn’t quite sure what else to say, and she seemed too spacey right now.

 

“Hang on,” Sonia put up a finger and then took off through the trees before I had a chance to respond. 

 

I let out a sigh and held back a groan of frustration. This doing whatever she wanted was going to have to change if she wanted to remain a part of Yondu’s crew, I might be more lenient but there was no way that Yondu was going to put up with it in front of other crewmates. I’d talk to her later tonight, at least there was no one around to see. Come to think of it, when was the last time I just got to act however  I wanted with no prying eyes? The solitude of this planet and this mission suddenly hit me and soon I wanted to run around after Sonia.

 

I was still staring in the direction she ran and was about to follow her when she reappeared a little to my left. I was a little more prepared this time, so I didn’t draw my gun. 

 

“I figured it out, Kraglin,” Sonia said, as though she hadn’t even left. She charged over and grabbed my hand and pulled me into the brush. 

 

With Sonia as my guide, I was able to make my way through the trees. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I would have become hopelessly lost on my own. I probably would have been okay if I’d been setting up tracking points from the get-go, but it didn’t even cross my mind to do so with Sonia here. I got a slight chill down my spine when I realized the danger we could be in if my faith was misguided, or my auto-call couldn’t work for my M-ship.

 

After we’d walked a few miles, Sonia looked around wildly. I felt my heart sink as my fear became our current reality.

 

“You’re lost, aren’t you?” I sighed. 

 

“What? No,” Sonia said distractedly, although it seemed as though the coffee’d worn off by then. She was much more on guard and less sporadic. “The scent dissipated.”

 

“Dissipated? How?” I looked around, as though I’d see the Dervish moss growing right next to me.

 

“I’m not sure. Kraglin, have you ever harvested it before?” Sonia asked me.

 

I shook my head, “No, we usually buy it off suppliers and then move it through different parts of the quadrant, why?” It was moss, right? Just grew on trees and shit. So it shouldn’t be  that hard to find.

Sonia seemed a little lost in thought as she prepared to change forms. I sighed and bundled her clothes, resisting the urge to totally stare at her and suddenly I was standing next to her huge panther body.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I have a Ravager tattoo.  
> ~F2tM


	22. Badoon - Sonia

Once I shifted, the entire planet seemed to burst into life. Everything was more vibrant and seemed to take on a dream-like quality. I still wasn't picking up any traces of the moss, however, and that was really starting to make me angry. I paced back and forth around the area where the scent seemed to vanish. Shifting made every scent much more intense, as good as my nose was while in human form, it was more than twice as strong after shifting. I fought the urge to bound off into the wilderness as I had the day before, but I could still feel nature calling me. 

 

"Sonia?" Kraglin asked uncertainly.

 

I knew he wanted to know if I'd found it yet, I let out a harsh growl in response. Hope he didn't take it the wrong way. I caught a glimpse of his face out of the corner of my eye and could tell that he somehow got the message that I was mad at me, not him. My pride as a tracker was at stake if I couldn't find this trail. I decided to try searching from above again and threw myself up the nearest tree.

 

From the high up purchase, I was able to get above the thick fog that coated this planet and a slight breeze brought the scent back. I felt intense relief as I made my way back down the tree. As I hit the ground, I caught Kraglin's questioning look, to which I replied with a motion of my head, indicating the direction of the breeze that carried the scent. 

 

After we moved a few more miles in the correct direction, the scent of the moss became stronger, as did another scent, foreign to this planet. I stopped short, causing Kraglin to walk into my rear end. He instantly tried to back away, but I curled my tail around his knees. I wanted him to remain close.

 

As I scanned my eyes back and forth, I opened up my senses to listen to what the forest was saying to me. It screamed ‘intruder!’, and not at us. That damn dense fog made it near impossible to pick up anything from too far away, which made my hackles rise in response. Kraglin must have noted my fur spiking in agitation because he drew his gun quickly afterwards.

 

I heard someone approach us from behind and flicked my ear in that direction, causing both Kraglin and I to do a 180 simultaneously. I drew my lips back in a grin before flexing my claws into the soft dirt and letting out a low threatening growl as my ears were drawn back. Kraglin aimed his gun in the direction of the Badoon that had been trying to sneak up on us. I could sense more moving around us. I resisted every urge to launch myself towards the nearest tree to perform an aerial assault.

 

"How did you find this place?" The first gunman asked. We could both sense the hostility in this single question.

 

I saw Kraglin peering down at me, and could tell that he was itching to know how many there were. I couldn't convey that there were eight including the one in front of us, but I could try to tell him we were surrounded. I angled my ears forward before setting them back in their original position of flat against my skull. Kraglin made no indication of understanding this, but moved his finger into shooting position and took complete aim. I knew then that he had no intention of bartering with these Badoon (understandable) and we'd most likely have to kill them all. I braced myself and awaited Kraglin's initial shot.

 

No sooner than the plasma left his gun, was I was launching myself to one side as Kraglin immediately took the other to avoid any return fire. I instantly took one leap up the nearest tree, spiraled it and flung myself towards the nearest Badoon that had been at our backs. 

 

The poor sod didn't even have time to realize I was upon him before death claimed him in a horrifically bloody way. As soon as he touched the ground, blood seeping out of the gaping wounds in his neck, stomach and shoulders, I hit the next gunner low. On impact, he crumpled and aimed the plasma laden weapon at my face, which I swatted away before crouching low as return fire from his compatriot sailed over my head.

 

I let out a snarl before throwing myself to the right to avoid another shot. The missing shot hit his team member in the back of the head, where the helmet didn't offer full protection and severed his spinal cord, killing him instantly. The smell of burning flesh rose around us and joined the current miasma, which only added to its thickness.

 

I charged at the Badoon with horrible aim and to my greatest embarrassment, snagged a claw on a root and pelted forward to smear my face in the dirt. I was out of range to use my claws, but close enough to leg sweep. I planted my front claws and swung my body around while rapid-shifting to provide the proper bone structure to crash my human legs into the Badoon's, knocking him to the ground. I further used my momentum to swing my feet over my head and turning to land on four limbs while shifting back to my more powerful form. I was seriously going to pay for that one later. 

 

Before the Badoon could recover, I was at his throat, crushing his windpipe between my strong jaws. Once he had properly suffocated, I jumped back to quickly survey my next target. I glanced over at Kraglin to see him aiming his blaster in my direction. I flinched as the shot went over my back into the Badoon that was trying to rush me. I watched him fall, the life ebbing out of his body. Confirming his death I tried to scent for more Badoon, but could only find the stench of burnt flesh and death. It seemed as though we got them all. I grinned at Kraglin before I spied movement through the fog behind him. I narrowed my eyes and began to slowly slink towards it. Kraglin could tell I was on high alert still and looked around for a target to aim at.

The barely visible Badoon suddenly took aim and fired at Kraglin. I lurched into his legs, causing him to fall. I stood over Kraglin, crouching slightly as the plasma came hurtling towards us. It was soon apparent that I had not been crouching low enough as the smell of burning flesh and hair increased and I felt a stripe of fire going down my spine. I let out an involuntary snarl of pain and the ground seemed to waver in front of me as the pain started to assault my nervous system. Pushing the pain aside I raised my head slowly and locked eyes with the Badoon.

In the haze of the pain erupting at the slightest movement, I could not make out the expression on the Badoon’s face as I charged towards him. I drove through the bushes for cover and launched myself at his chest. My enraged state was the perfect offense for quickly disposing of the enemy, however, I had been blinded enough to charge into my current predicament. Not only was my left hind leg snagged in some laser-thorn wire, but there was a sterling silver knife embedded in my right shoulder. 

The lapse in adrenaline was enough for the pain of my back to crash into my brain, along with the silver knife that was starting to sear my skin and work its way deeper. I let out a harsh scream, a mix of a panther yowl and a human cry of pain as my body tried to shift itself back to my human form. I fought with my very physiology, struggling to maintain my panther form, where I was stronger and could heal faster. Absorbed in my battle, I didn’t hear Kraglin rush up to me.

 

“Sonia! Oh shit,” Kraglin’s fear-scent drove my brain back into its panicked frenzy and the second I felt the laser-thorn move I started to thrash. “Sonia, please! Stop moving, you’ll drive the thorns in deeper!” 

 

At the sound of Kraglin’s voice, I was able to bring myself back to my senses a little and calm down enough for him to unwind the wire from my flesh. I staggered at this moment, pitching forward and driving the knife deeper into my shoulder. I collapsed on my side, the pain preventing me from even making a sound. I tried to focus on drawing air in and out of my lungs. “Ah, fuck.” Kraglin hissed, before reaching over and suddenly unsheathing the knife from my shoulder. Spots danced in front of my eyes as my blood seeped out.

 

“Sonia, you have to shift. I can’t move you like this,” Kraglin’s plea sounded far away and distorted, almost like hearing it through water. I flicked my eyes over to his, finding them full of concern. 

Whether I made the choice to shift is still unclear to me. The dizzying effect of blood-loss caused a great darkness to beckon me. I silently placed my life and all faith that I would live into Kraglin’s hands before I tumbled into the abyss. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger: Non-intentional. I promise. Bardil's death wasn't included in my original run of this and it threw off the chapter count.  
> ~F2tM


	23. Keep Calm - Kraglin

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh FUCK!” I drew my hands to my head and was about to start tugging out my mohawk until I realized that wouldn’t help me. I stared helplessly at Sonia as she lost consciousness. It was soon after that that she shifted back into her human form, looking frail and pitiful lying in the dirt.

I quickly grabbed her clothes and wrapped them around her small body, trying to be mindful of her back and shoulder, both of which were still smoking. I took a deep breath to calm down and then hoisted Sonia onto my back and turned on my portable pad to set up a tracking point to find this place later. After setting a tracking point I instantly tried to make my way back to my ship. I summoned my ship to autopilot it’s way to my location as I started to scale the nearest tree.

Keeping Sonia balanced was a bit more difficult than I had anticipated, but I somehow managed to get back up the tree. As I waited for my M-ship to arrive, I activated my personal communicator to call Yondu. I remembered how he had taken Peter to a doctor somewhere when he’d gotten dangerously ill. They had been able to successfully treat him, so maybe they could fix Sonia too. Yondu took a bit to answer, he must have been busy.

“Kraglin! You gotta’n update I assume?” Yondu had his huge goofy grin on his face. Under normal circumstances I might have found it amusing. His smile soon faded once he saw my face. I’m sure that I looked like I’d been through hell.

“What the hell? What’s goin’ on, Kraglin!?” Yondu’s concern came out as anger, as it was prone to do.

“Sonia’s hurt!” I spat out, dropping all formality. “Where did you take Peter when he was dying?” I huffed.

My ship appeared and I boarded it. After gently setting Sonia down on the flight deck, (I wanted to keep an eye on her, I could feel her temperature rising even higher than mine,) I sat in the pilot’s chair and switched off the autopilot. The call transferred from my PerCom to the mini-projector on my dash.

“Kraglin, it was way out the way and real expensive.” Yondu replied uncertainly. I snapped my eyes to his. The projection of him was crystal clear as usual and I could see concern in Yondu’s eyes. Something told me it wasn’t concern for Sonia, though.

“Who gives a  fuck !?” I snarled at him. At the look on his face, I took a deep breath and calmed myself before continuing, “I know she’s a bit of a wild card, but she’s turning out to be more useful than we’d first thought.”

Yondu closed his eyes and seemed lost in thought for a couple seconds before opening them again. In that moment he regained control of his former self and I saw my captain again. He looked agitated, which means he probably drew wrong conclusions about what I’d said. I didn’t have time for over-censorship of my words. 

“There’s a place in the downtown of The Hub. A coupla Krylorians set up shop there an they’re the best at fixing Terrans without askin’ too many questions.” Captain was steady in holding my gaze, “I’ll send you the coordinates. What happened?”

“We were ambushed by some Badoon and one of them hit her indirectly with a plasma blaster, got her in the shoulder with a silver knife all while she was tangled up in laser-thorn wire.” I’d received the coordinates and I plugged them into my auto-pilot. It would take quite a few hours to get there, even on the highest drive setting.

Yondu let out a small snort. “Sounds like she’s just as reckless out there as she is on ship.”

I flicked my eyes over to Yondu’s before replying, “Sonia took out three without using weapons before she spotted this last one sneaking up behind me. If she hadn’t seen it and knocked me out of the way and taken the shot herself, I’d be dead right now.”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Yondu absorbing everything I’d just said. I crouched down and picked up Sonia and carried her down to the bunk. Her temperature was still dangerously high, but I didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t a healer and I’d only even dealt with more basic wounds. Even a broken arm, I could set. I went to the mess area and grabbed a cup of water. Tilting her head I tried to get some in her, the cold water would help with her temperature, right? I sat at the table and transferred Yondu’s call to the screen overhead.

“Pull some of the costs from my account. She’s crew and was hurt on a mission for me. You also might wanta break out that pad and start looking into whatever information you can find on her species.” With a final look that resembled something of concern, Yondu ended the call and left me with a blank screen to do my research.

I had a few hours to kill anyways, so I pulled the control for the screen over and hovered my fingers over the buttons. What should I search for? Sonia called herself a panther, but even Peter had mentioned that they were rather rare. Pulling a search term from my brain, I typed in ‘Terran cat’.

The hits that I got were all over the place. Pictures of small furry creatures somewhat resembling Sonia exploded onto the screen. I pushed them off to the side and focused on things that I could read. The term ‘cat’ seemed to refer to felines of varying size, carnivorous in nature with strong senses of smell, balance and hearing. I found a picture that looked very similar to Sonia, only a different color and selected it. Mountain lion, puma, panther; it seemed to have a lot of different names. After watching a particularly gruesome video of a panther hunting, I decided to try searching for exactly what Sonia was.

The term ‘werepanther’ didn’t pull up anything of note, a few fiction tales. I couldn’t think of anything else to search for. ‘Cat-human’ didn’t sound very promising so I didn’t even bother with it. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so lost and frustrated. I was about to terminate the pad’s search program before I caught something on the corner of the screen. In the related terms was ‘werewolf’.  What the hell? I thought, rolling my eyes and selecting it.

Turns out there was  a lot of information on werewolves. For lack of anything better to do, I started reading. A lot of this information was just myth and legend as well. However, there was a lot more of it than for panthers and some of it applied to Sonia. The aversion to silver, the ability to change at will, (depending on which myth you looked at,) the aggression, heightened senses, the increased strength, it all fit. Just the animal was different. How odd. 

One thing that struck me as concerning was the origin. Based what what you read, if you were bitten or scratched you’d become a werewolf yourself. Other myths said you had to be born one. Some said both. I looked down at my hand and saw the barely visible lines where Sonia scratched me that first night. Was I going to become a panther too? I shook my head, she would have warned me if that was a possibility. I trusted her.

I got up to check on Sonia. She was still monstrously hot and she had broken into a vicious sweat. Despite the high temperature, she was shaking. Was she going into shock? I carefully crawled into bed next to her and pulled the blanket over us. The autopilot would wake me if I dozed off. Once I relaxed besides her I heard her breathing pick up. I looked over as her eyes slowly flutter open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay, mates. Totally lost track of days. My life is kinda screwy. Always.  
> ~F2tM


	24. The Hub - Kraglin

“Kr-Kraglin?”

Sonia’s voice was hoarse and weak as she said my name. The frail sound made my chest clench in sympathy. I wouldn’t be able to rest easy until we got the clinic. I couldn’t lose her, and yet, I couldn’t quite place why I felt so strongly.

“Yes, I’m here,” I said softly. Setting my hand on her head, I started to slowly stroke her damp hair. It suddenly dawned on me that her long braid, (which was becoming increasingly unravelled,) was sticking to the oozing burn on her back. I gently tugged it out, as it came away, Sonia let out a weak moan of pain. I very slowly eased her into a sitting position, her shirt fell away since I hadn’t actually put it on her. I debated properly dressing her but decided against it. I knew they’d need to see her back once I got to The Hub.

I looked at her back, although I didn’t know anything about healing, I could tell that it wasn’t good. The burn was an angry red and oozing a yellow pus. Towards the center of the spine, I could see a hint of white bone peeking out. Lucky for the both of us, I have a strong stomach and had seen much worse during my time in the Pits. I reached down and grabbed a clean sheet to wrap around her to protect it from getting anything in it. I kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. 

As soon as the fabric touched the wound Sonia let out a soft growl. I felt her sharp teeth graze the skin of my shoulder through my shirt. I braced myself for her to bite, but to my surprise, she pulled back to just get my shirt. As I finished covering her burn she kept the fabric of my shirt clenched tightly in her teeth. I could also see tears starting to form at the edges of her closed eyes. I slowly leaned her back against the pillow. Her expression was one of pain but I honestly couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not.

I pulled the blanket over her and started to get out of the bunk to see our progress when she suddenly reached out and grabbed my arm. I looked down to see her eyes open a crack.

“Please,” Sonia whispered. It wasn’t quite a question, “Your scent is comforting.”

I don’t know if I was more surprised at the information or the fact that she was so freely giving it. I carefully eased myself back down beside her and she relaxed her arm. I tucked it under the blanket before drawing it over my own self. As I settled myself to doze off, I felt her hand slowly reach over and find mine. It was cold and clammy, so unlike the rest of her body’s temperature. I gave it a little squeeze, but she didn’t give any indication of noticing. Laying so still, it wasn’t long before I nodded off.

***~XoX~***

I awoke to the sound of the autopilot counting down. I quickly roused myself and jumped out out of bed to head to the main flight control deck. Out the main window, I could see the lower half of the mechaplanet known as The Hub. I quickly consulted the directions that Yondu had given me to find this strange little hospice. I knew that there were quite a few buildings in The Hub that served a rudimentary hospital function for things like accidents and illness, but there weren’t many hospitals in the entire galaxy that dealt with Terrans on a regular basis, or had ever even seen one. 

Locating where I needed to go, I landed my ship in the closest port and went downstairs to fetch Sonia. To my dismay, it seemed as though she’d been able to muster the energy to shift again. I let out a sigh of frustration, unsure of how to get her to the building. I crouched near the bed trying to wake her enough to get her to change back. Her body seemed lifeless, so I leaned my head in to discover that her breathing was so light that I could barely detect it. There was no way I was getting her awake. I braced myself and carefully pulled her onto my back. A fresh wave of blood dripped out of the wound on the front of her shoulder and seeped into the back of my coat. Good thing Ravagers wore red. Heaving myself into a standing position, I realized that I’d be able to transport her, but it’d be a struggle. She was just so big in this form!

I held her paws as I opened the M-ship’s door to the outside and started to make my way through the busy side streets. I held my head high and calmly walked on, keeping my high-ranking position in the forefront of my mind and imagined the crew watching my every move. I was stronger than all of these fools, time to show them why  I was First Mate.

I proudly walked through the front doors of the clinic, refusing to show how utterly exhausted I was. The red female Krylorian at the front desk gave me a harsh look.

“We don’t treat animals here.”

I was instantly angry. “She’s a Terran, you treat Terrans here, don’t you?” I snarled at her.

Sonia almost slipped from my back and I quickly reached up and snatched her collar. With a great heave I pulled her into a more centered position on my back, more of her blood came out the knife wound and dripped off my shoulder onto the floor. I stared at it for a second before turning my attention back to the Krylorian. 

“Sir, we don’t treat animals, regardless of origin,” she shot me dark look and shuffled a couple of pads around on the desk, leafing through the information on one of them. I spotted a rolling cot off to the side and headed towards it.

“Hey!”

I ignored the woman and proceeded to sling Sonia off of my back and try to tenderly set her on the cot. My attempts to be gentle went completely out the window and I had to wrestle her bulk onto it with a little difficulty. I leaned down to her ear.

“Sonia, you have to shift back,” I gently nudged her side, too scared to touch the burn. 

The Krylorian had come running over to us, after summoning a few more hospital workers. They all looked pretty pissed. The yellow male Krylorian grasped my coat and tried to pull me away from the cot. I glared at him and yanked back hard, causing him to back away a couple of steps. I still hadn’t had a moment to check my appearance. I probably looked as wild as Sonia at the moment. One of the red women tried to rouse Sonia. I felt a spark of hope, maybe the unfamiliar scent would alarm her into waking.

“You have to grab your pet and leave.” The first woman told me. I viciously shook my head, I knew I had a right to be here and Sonia needed help that I couldn’t give her. 

The male Krylorian had gotten a partner by now and both of them each seized an arm and started to haul me off.

“Sonia!” I shouted. I was starting to get really pissed now. I tried to fight them off, one of them pulled out a taser and shot some electricity into me. I let out a slight cry of pain and staggered to my knee. The other two Krylorians tried to move Sonia off the cot, grabbing her by her collar and a couple legs. I saw her ears twitch as I was tasered again.

With a great heave, Sonia was up on her feet and snarling menacingly. I saw that her eyes were glazed over and I wondered just how much pain she was in. It must have been a great effort to bring herself into what looked like fighting position. All of the hospital staff backed away as Sonia let out another rumble of anger. I quickly jumped up to her side.

“Sonia! Shift back so these people can help you!” I hissed at her. For a couple seconds, I wasn’t sure if she’d heard me, she kept looking in the direction of the workers and growling. I put my hand on her head reassuringly and she ceased the sound. “Trust me, they’ll help you.”

After a few more seconds, Sonia’s shape began to change as she collapsed face first onto the cot. The blood from her shoulder staining the white cloth underneath her. I was shocked to see the state of her body. Her skin was ashen and across the top of her back you could see the spiderwebbed pattern of her veins. It was almost as though she’d been poisoned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q: More Kraglin?  
> A: ALWAYS.  
> Hopefully next week I'll remember what Tuesday is.  
> ~F2tM


	25. Research - Kraglin

There was a small gasp from one of the female Krylorians as Sonia shifted back. The two immediately rushed over and began assessing her. They said something to the others that I wasn’t quite paying attention to and one rushed off while the other came over to move the cot. I started to follow after them but one of the women stayed behind and blocked my path.

   

“We need to know some things.” She stated simply.

   

I narrowed my eyes, “Why should I tell you anything after you tried to force us out?”

   

She sighed, “I apologize for your treatment, we couldn’t have a dangerous animal on the loose here. We’ve had… incidents before.”

   

She gestured over to a couple of chairs off the side of the room. I took one last look down the hallway where they’d rolled Sonia and reluctantly followed the nurse. As she sat down, I leaned against the wall near her.  
   

“Please, sit.”

   

“No, I’m good.” I said dismissively. I didn’t owe her anything. Not after she was such a bitch to me.

   

She sighed and pulled out a pad, prepared to add notes. I could see things being filled in, the other nurse must be compiling a file about Sonia. The woman studied the pad for a second before looking up at me.

   

“She’s a Terran, but unusual. What kind of care has she been under recently?” She gave me a hard look.

   

“Mine.” I said curtly. “I bought her as a pet a couple weeks or so ago.”

   

“What about before?”

    “I don’t know. She said she’s had a lot of other owners. She doesn’t talk much about herself.” I shrugged, what the hell did she want from me?

   

“Well, it appears as though she’s malnourished and has been poisoned, but the toxicity report came back clean. The plasma hit didn’t do as much damage as it should have. What was she hit with in the chest?” She continued to read as she asked me questions.

   

“A knife.”

   

“A knife? Interesting….” She tapped a few letters on the pad and pulled up the report on the front wound. “It’s not closing, or even showing any signs of healing. The poison seems to be emanating from there.”  
   

“It was a silver knife. She’s allergic to silver.” I said, for lack of a better term. If the werewolf information I’d read earlier carried over to her, allergy was a good way to put it. Although, it seemed to be spreading. I hadn’t quite put two and two together until I saw her veins like that. It seemed to carry through her blood.

   

She typed a few notes. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, “We’ll start removing the silver immediately. After then we’ll drain the burn and cover it before putting her in healing waters.”

   

“How long will it take?” I asked. I knew that the longer it took, the more it would cost. Not that it was a huge issue, I was also ansty about her waking up. I knew full well what she was capable of and I needed to be there when she woke.

   

“It’s hard to say. Most Terrans are pretty fragile and take a long time to heal up proper. Of course, that’s only what we’ve heard. We’ve only ever treated one Terran at this clinic and it was more than 20 years ago. The staff from back then aren’t even here anymore. But from what I understand, their physiology is quite similar to that of a Xandarian,” she tucked away her pad and stood up as she relayed all of this. She had a small smile on her face as her eyes met mine. They widened slightly as she finally got a good look at my face. A small blush crept up to her cheeks.

   

“So can I go back there or what? Trust me, you’ll want me back there when she wakes up.” I said gruffly, crossing my arms. I didn’t have time for her shit anymore.

   

She shook her head, “Absolutely not, we can’t have you interfering.”

   

I glared in her direction before muttering, “I’ll be back.”

   

“Wait! You need to fill out a couple forms!” She waved the pad at me. I turned and eyed them suspiciously. “It’s only for our records, and can only be accessed with her DNA.”

   

I took the pad from her and looked over the form. As I read down it, I realized how little information on it I could actually provide. I didn’t even know her last name. Did she even know her last name? I left it blank. What year was she born? Actually, I could figure that one out; It was the same year we picked up Peter. I filled out what I could and gave the pad back to the nurse. She looked it over, if it was lacking anything she didn’t say so. After that I quickly departed, I didn’t need her trying to chat me up.

   

Not knowing where else to go, I headed for the nearest food stall. It’d been awhile since I’d eaten anything, now that I felt a bit more confident about Sonia’s status, the hunger hit me hard. I ordered a bowl of whatever stew they had cooking back there and a cold brew. I needed some alcohol to take the edge off. I took out my personal pad in the meantime and tried to access some Terran news outlets. If Sonia had been reported missing, I might be able to learn something about her.

   

After about forty minutes of failed searches, I was finally able to get a hit. On my screen was a picture of a very young female child with long black hair. I selected the article underneath it, a short little blurb and read it.

 

    Sonia Iversen (5) reportedly went missing on Sunday, August 31st during a family barbeque. She had wandered away from the rest of family and was last seen just outside the woods on the family’s property. Sonia is the youngest part of the prominent Iversen family who are well known in Great Falls for their success in the construction and landscaping businesses. Father, Henrik, has told reporters that he believes his daughter was kidnapped. No traces of intruders could be found near the house. Police have no leads. If you have any information to help with the investigation please call (406) 385-2994.

 

    Huh, that seemed very abrupt. There had to be more to the story. Unfortunately, all I could find were a couple of blog posts questioning Henrik’s sanity as he blamed ‘aliens’ for his daughter’s disappearance. Confused by this, I searched the term to find it to be the Terran word for people who weren’t from Terra. It was almost startling to realize just how little Terra knew about the rest of the Galaxy. I knew that Terra was pretty backwater, but this level of ignorance was almost sad.

   

I finished my food and drink and wandered over to a shop. There were a few things of interest and I bought a couple of new shirts for myself and a couple of things for Sonia. I kept it simple, not quite knowing her tastes yet. She seemed pretty okay with wearing my stuff so I just picked a couple things that I’d wear. While exiting the shop, my personal communicator went off. Slightly confused to see it wasn’t Yondu, I answered it. It was the red Krylorian woman from the hospital.

   

“Mr. Obfonteri! You need to return quickly. It’s as you predicted, and you are needed here immediately.”

With no further words, she ended the call. I instantly broke into a run back towards the hospital. Sonia must have woken up already. The woman’s hair had been a bit razzled and she looked shaken. What the hell was going on?


	26. Surface - Sonia

The darkness was cool and comforting. It welcomed me with opened arms and provided a safe haven from the intense fire along my back. Blissfully, I sank deep, surfacing only a couple times and my memories are hazy at best. Kraglin was there. That’s all I remember. He didn’t leave my side and it seems that I was right to trust him. The pain quickly put me back out both times, but his scent still lingered in my dark dreams.

This time was different. Before I even opened my eyes, all I could smell were strangers and sterility. No Kraglin. I blinked my eyes open, only to be greeted by harsh lighting and white walls. I still ached, but not nearly as much as before. I quickly bolted upright onto all fours to assess my situation. There were a couple monitors on either side of me and a male and female Krylorian talking together at the foot of the cot that I had been laying face down on. There were some tubes connected to me, a huge bandage over the front of my shoulder where the knife had been before and my back felt sticky and stiff. My skin was pale and ashen under the light sheet that had been draped over me. The female nurse whipped around and widened her eyes.

“How are you awake? You need to lie back!” She quickly started to rush to my side and reached out to grab my arm.

With a snarl I yanked it out of her reach and instantly bared my fangs at her. What the hell was this? Why did she think she had any fucking right to touch me? Where was Kraglin? She reached for me again, so I shifted completely. My head spun from the sudden expenditure of energy. I might have been pushing it to shift so quickly, but I felt it necessary to my safety until I figured out what the hell was going on. Also, it would help with the healing process.

I growled at her and the male Krylorian dashed over to get her out of the range of my claws, which I slashed in their direction. I stalked around on the cot a couple seconds before aiming myself towards the doors. I landed awkwardly, my usually impeccable balance also robbed of me, and I felt tugging on my sides as something detached from my skin as my head swam.  A harsh metallic scent filled my nose. The tubes were full of silver! Were these idiots pumping me full of silver? I ran down the hallway, almost tripping around a corner, only to see another male Krylorian in my path, holding a syringe of some sort. I skidded to a halt and snarled at him, trying to scare him out of my way. I didn’t want to find out what was in that syringe.

I saw Kraglin approaching the building and burst through the door, looking like he’d been through hell. His mohawk was spiked up in strange places, there was dirt and ash smeared all over his face and few scrapes and smudges of his blue blood could be seen on his cheek. What the  fuck happened?

The Krylorian in front of me lunged at me with the syringe in the moment I’d paused to study Kraglin. I hissed and struck with my claws, catching him in the arm, knocking the needle out of his hand and spraying his light pink blood on the wall. He let out a cry of pain.

“You idiots!” Kraglin yelled at the staff. He charged through them and made is way towards me. Tail lashing, and teeth bared I stood stock still as he reached his hand out to me. He crouched down and set his hand on my head, a gesture that had the most calming of effects on me. “You need to get into the healing waters now.”

Water? No. I growled again and met his eyes. I saw sympathy and concern. He was truly worried about me. I slowed my growling, if he said I needed to do that, then it was probably in my best interest. My brain swam around in sluggish circles. I looked around me, seeing the terrified Krylorians, and I looked into Kraglin’s face again. With a mental sigh, I shifted back.

Even though Kraglin was crouched on the floor, I still felt incredibly tiny next to him. He put his hand on my bare shoulder and helped me up, shrugging off his coat and putting it on my shoulders. My skin was covered in sweat and dirt. I could feel my muscles aching and spasming from the rapid shifting.

“Seems like you’re in less pain,” he grinned at me.

“She’s on heavy medication right now,” said one of the male nurses. I clutched at Kraglin’s arm at the sound of him. My brain was really fuzzy and I still felt out of it. My sudden burst of adrenaline was leaving me weak and wobbly. I hated it, but at the same time, I didn’t mind it. Kraglin would support me. He was there, everything would be okay. Whoa, was this the drugs messing with my mind?

“Kraglin?” I asked him. My voice sounded small and hoarse. I hated it. He looked down at me. I opened my mouth to ask something and was hit with a wave of pain so intense that I doubled over, struggling to keep my stomach from expelling its contents, I felt my teeth shift uncontrollably as I ground them together. I heard the male nurse approach us. I felt a slight poke as he injected something into me. I hissed in his direction, what did he just do to me? I looked up at Kraglin again, how could he let them do that to me? Whatever it was. Traitor!

The room shifted behind him as my vision wavered. Dark spots started to infringe on my field of sight and I felt my eyes widen in response, trying to draw in as much light as possible. If it had been fun to begin with, it certainly wasn’t fun anymore. I let out a distressed whine, feeling my heartbeat accelerate as my panic intensified. My metabolic rate along with the heart rate increase, sped up the serum in my body, causing it to hit me like a ton of bricks. My knees buckled and the floor rushed up to meet me.

 

“I’m right here.”

 

~~~*^*~~~

 

The next time my thoughts rose to the surface, the first thing I scented was Kraglin. He’d kept his promise. He was still by my side. I slowly cracked open my eyes to find myself in the same white room as before. The monitors were giving off rhythmic beeps which rang into my head. Could those be turned the fuck off now? I’m not dead.

I was in quite a bit more pain than the last time I’d awoken. It was an effort to raise my head up to locate Kraglin, asleep in a chair on my left. I tried to lift my arm to brush a loose strand of hair out of my eye when I found I couldn’t. Slightly alarmed I looked down to see that I was strapped to the bed. My heart surged as I took every ounce of strength I could muster and yanked on the cuff. I heard some fibers snap and I repeated my pull, effectively breaking the restraint. I did the same on the other arm and tried to lean forward to undo the ankle straps. My exhaustion prevented me from doing much else however, as I found I had no energy left to spare on my escape. Kraglin looked peaceful in the chair, he seemed relaxed enough so it must not be too dangerous here.

The monitor to my side had increased its infernal beeping at my sudden flare of panic. It seemed to be mimicking my heart rate and it ebbed and flowed with it. The rise in pitch and speed brought forth a sense of urgency and the female Krylorian from earlier rushed through the door. She stopped short when she saw my eyes open.

“You’re awake. And unrestrained.” 

Impeccable sense of observation, this one. I snorted and steeled my nerves as I slowly sat up, crossed my arms over my chest, inclined my head slightly and glared at her through my uneven bangs. I rumbled low in my throat, reminding her that I didn’t like her. She narrowed her eyes in return.

“We just saved your life, Miss Iversen.”

I nearly choked on my own growl. My startlement must have shown on my face. She seemed pretty pleased with herself for rattling me.   


“How do you know my name?” I hoarsely growled back narrowing my eyes to slits. My throat felt rough and scratchy.

“Mr. Obfonteri added it to your file shortly after you went into the healing waters.”

“Kraglin has a last name?” What a strange day this was already shaping up to be. I wonder if I was still on any drugs. Considering how I felt, I would say they’d already gone through my system. Stuff like that is never strong enough for my metabolic rate. Speaking of which, my stomach voiced its status in a roar loud enough to challenge my own.

The nurse sighed, “You must have been more malnourished than we’d originally thought. Whoever Mr. Obfonteri bought you off of must have really done a number on you.” She looked down and swiped at a couple of things on the pad she was carrying.

“You don’t assume it was Kraglin?” I asked out of sheer curiosity. I was picking up a strange scent off of her.

She blushed so slightly that I almost didn’t catch it. It was camouflaged by her pink skin. “No, I don’t believe he would do such a thing.”

Interesting. She thought him attractive. I glanced his way again. He still looked like shit. I mentally pictured him as I’d seen him before the dirt and grime. I paused to consider and was a bit alarmed to find that I could see her point. I must still be on drugs.

I saw the nurse turn to leave out of the corner of my eye. She stopped right before the door and told me:

“You know, he never let us take you from his sight.”

She sounded slightly jealous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, all's well now. Hooray, no one's dead. Well... at least in this chapter.  
> ~F2tM


	27. Discharge - Kraglin

I heard my name, but I pretended to still be sleeping. I could hear that nurse and I  really didn’t want to talk to her anymore. She kept trying to be friendly with me since I came back and I just didn’t want to deal with it. After I heard her leave, I opened my eyes to see Sonia sitting up in her bed. She looked much better than before but I could see she was still a bit shaky as she turned her head to look at me.

“Where’d she go?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t be back too terribly soon.

“Hopefully to get me food, or else she’s going to be my next meal,” Sonia said, her voice sounding awful and painful, hopefully the nurse got her some water too.

I stretched my arms out in front of me before easing myself upright. My neck hurt from sleeping in a chair but I had been absolutely exhausted.  After they put her into bed I just couldn't force myself forward anymore. I have no idea how Sonia manages to go weeks at a time without a decent night's sleep. I sat up and ran my hands over my face, they came away dusty and with a few flecks of blue. Right, I was a wreck too. I had been too tired to do anything about it before, and it's not like I wasn't used to a little dirt. We tended to let ourselves go sometimes on the Eclector.

"How long have I been out?" Sonia asked. I stood up and stretched my legs and back before walking over to her. I wanted to see her back.

"After they sedated you, they put you in the healing waters." I motioned her to lean forward, which she did without hesitation. Odd. "I wouldn't let them kick me out again so I hung around with you. It only took about a half hour for the waters to heal your back." Speaking of which, it looked fantastic. There was a noticeable scar where the skin knitted itself back together in a thick white line of knotted flesh that was painfully obvious against her olive skin, but other than that, a huge improvement. "After that they hooked you into this bed and once they left I pretty much passed out."

Satisfied that mine and Yondu’s Units weren't being wasted on shoddy care, (especially since they made me pay upfront,) I gently pressed Sonia back to lean against a couple pillows. I went to the foot of the bed to undo the ankle straps the staff had insisted on using. I told them she'd be fine this time so long as I didn't leave, but they wouldn't listen. Sonia looked up from watching my hands to look me in the eyes. 

"Thank you," she whispered.

I grinned in response. I could tell that she meant it and was truly grateful. I wondered if anyone had shown her this level of care before. I couldn't help it, I considered her more than my partner or my friend. It turned out that I truly did care for her. At my grin, she gave me a small smile in return. 

"You've only been out about four hours or so, by my judgement. Your back looks so much better," I commented.

Sonia nodded in response, as though this wasn't news to her.   


“I’m hungry, but other than that, I’m okay,” she shrugged. Even in the short time she’d been awake she was looking more alert and back to normal. I was instantly reminded of her wrist from a few days ago and remembered how it had healed itself in a matter of days. Incredible.

Just then, the nurse re-entered the room carrying a tray of food. It looked like random mix of things which made for quite the colorful arrangement.

“Oh, Mr. Obfonteri. You’re up, too.” She tried not to seem too interested. It didn’t work and I rolled my eyes in response as she set the tray in front of Sonia, who immediately started shoveling food in her mouth. The nurse turned to me and opened her mouth to say something else but was cut off by the machine flatlining as Sonia ripped a plug out of her hand.

“Miss Iversen!” she hissed.

Sonia looked up from the half empty tray and gave her a stern look. “I’m fine, stop hovering.”

The nurse made an impatient noise, but I’m sure she was used to her patients revolting like this. Sonia quickly finished the food and the nurse took the tray back out of the room, looking annoyed. I chuckled a little when she was out of earshot. I took a step towards my coat, which was slung over the arm of the chair I had been sleeping in, when Sonia latched onto my arm.

“Hey, I’m not leaving,” I said.

“I know.” She reached up, grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me down to place her lips on mine.

All of a sudden, the pad in my coat pocket wasn’t nearly as important. I closed my eyes and deepened the kiss, letting go of my momentary shock. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it still managed to be full of fire. Shallow and with lips only, I was rather disappointed when it was over so soon.

“Can we leave?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, let’s fucking go.”

~~~#$%*()&~~~~

Sonia was dressed and ready to leave in under five minutes and we were soon out the door and back on my M-Ship. As I exited The Hub’s surface, Sonia sat in the co-pilot’s chair beside me. I shot a sideways glance in her direction.

“So that was… um… forward of you.”

I saw her shrug out of the corner of my eye. “I can tell you’ve been holding back for my sake.”

“You sure you weren’t just jealous of that Krylorian?” I grinned at her. Considering how much we were in the hole, I think a little teasing was in order.

Sonia gave me a quizzical look, “No, I think she was jealous of  me , actually.”

“I dunno,” I said evasively, “I could’ve fucked her in a closet or something and you’d be none the wiser.” I kept up the shit-eating grin, it dawned on her that I was kidding and she gave a wicked sneer in return.

“And yet I’m the one who’s going to be in your bed tonight.”

I lost control then and bust out laughing. Her joking about sex despite never having any was just about as good as hassling shopkeepers with Yondu. Once we were cleared of the atmosphere, I set the autopilot to take us back to Dervani and stretched. I was still pretty tired.

“You still hungry? She didn’t give you that much food and they said you were malnourished or something, although I don’t understand how, you eat everything,” I ran my hand through my mohawk. 

“I have a high metabolism. It’s even higher when I shift,” she explained.

“You shift all the time! On accident, even!” I pointed out.

“Exactly,” she twirled the end of her braid, (which I saved for her when the nurses tried cutting it off,) “More food sounds great, although I’m going to hunt before we leave Dervani, I can’t put up with all this Orloni-food for too much longer.”

“Sorry, it’s usually just Jax and I in this ship and neither of us really eat meat all that often,” I shrugged. I then proceeded to let out an uncontrollable yawn.

“Bah, flexitarians,” Sonia snorted under her breath. “You sleep, I can get it myself. I’m totally fine, now. Seriously,” she told me firmly.

I nodded in response and made my way to the bunk. After my clothes were off I landed face first on the mattress and pulled the blanket awkwardly around me. I fell asleep listening to the oddly comforting sounds of Sonia rummaging around in the mess area.


	28. The Com - Sonia

After I’d gathered enough food to finally shut up my stomach, I hunkered down at the table to eat. I investigated the table’s pad, which I knew could also control the big screen overhead. Unfortunately, I had no idea how it worked. Or even what it was capable of. I sighed, bored. I went up to the control board and looked at all the knobs and switches, imagining what they did. I still had no desire to learn how to drive a ship. One look out the window told me I’d be lost in an instant. I peered around, looking for anything identifiable; a planet, asteroid, ship,  something.

I was too wide awake to contemplate sleeping, even though I’m sure my body needed more rest to recuperate. I glanced over at Kraglin. He was on his stomach with his head facing away from me. It amazed me how quickly he could fall asleep. I shook my head in wonder and turned back to the pad on the table. Wasn’t there a way to tell our progress back to the planet? I stared at the pad, hoping it would tell me what to do.

I sighed and pulled out some of Kraglin’s charts from a drawer. Rolling them out on the table I tried my best to figure out which planet I was looking at. I looked at the scale in the corner. I knew enough numbers to realize that I was looking at a system. What I thought was a planet turned out to be a star and what I thought were moons turned out to be planets. Godammit, I was useless at this. Was there an  Idiot’s Guide to Reading StarCharts around here? Oh wait, I wouldn’t be able to read that either. I growled in frustration at myself and swiped the charts off the table in rage. My illiteracy had never been a bigger issue. I’d have to ask Kraglin to teach me to read on the flight home.

Home? Did I really consider the Eclector my home? I gave myself a small smile. I guess I did. I had a place there, a job that I was doing great at failing. I even had friends now. I looked over at Kraglin again and felt an uncontrollable urge to reach out to him. I made sure to retrieve the charts from the floor and roll them back up in the drawer, it was no use pissing him off. Although, it wasn’t as though his M-ship was the tidiest thing in the world. Charts safe, I silently crept towards the bed, but as I got closer it soon became obvious that a horde of thundering bilgesnipe wouldn’t have caused him to stir. Thinking about it now, I don’t think he’d been able to get any sleep since before the fight with the Badoon. 

He remained in deep sleep as I took off my clothes and joined him under the blanket. The initial temperature drop soon replaced by Kraglin’s comforting heat. I snuggled into him closer, letting his scent wash over me and was surprised at how relaxing the skin contact was. Maybe Terrans were more like Xandarians than I’d first thought. My mind made a hideous leap as I recalled both Kraglin and Tajuun saying almost identical things about physical contact and the comfort they got from it. I gave myself a mental headshake to rattle out a particularly disturbing mental image and concentrated on Kraglin’s scent, which seemed to give me more peace of mind than anything I’d ever encountered. Still asleep, Kraglin turned his head towards me and touched his cheek to my forehead. I let out a small sigh and took a deep breath of his scent, letting it seep into my very being as I drifted into sleep.

~~~-_-~~~

I was awoken a few hours later by the NavCom announcing our arrival. Kraglin was still out cold, so I quickly went to the pad to try and shut it up and allow him some more time. I tapped at a random symbol. The signal went off, but then something new popped up on its small screen. It looked like it was thinking, or connecting to something. Then Yondu’s face filled the big screen overhead.

“Godammit,” I hissed under my breath. This was  so not what I was trying to do. 

“Kraglin?” Yondu asked, his eyes darted around, looking for someone. But I was standing right in front of the screen.

“Yondu, it’s me,” I announced stupidly. Yondu made no notion of hearing me, however, and started to look more and more impatient.

“Is this a joke?” He growled. I growled at him in response and started hitting things on the pad on the table. I must have hit the right combination of things because after a few swipes Yondu seemed to see me.

“Sonia? You’re out of the hospital already,” Yondu narrowed his eyes at me. I returned the look of hostility.

“Yes, we left quite a few hours ago,” I explained.

“Why did it take you so long to widen the view?  You called  me .” He was irritated about something. Was failing to immediately respond to him a capital offense?

“I wasn’t trying to call you,” I muttered, crossing my arms. “I was just trying to shut up the bleeding NavCom…”

A look of amusement sprawled across his face. I was  so glad that he was getting some amusement out of my hopeless flaw.

“Yeah, he mentioned that you couldn’t read. Not too bad figuring it out on your own. We’ll get you a PerCom soon,” he informed me.

I raised an eyebrow. I was getting a PerCom? Who the fuck would I talk to on it? I didn’t have a clue as to how these things worked anyways, I’ve never come close to owning one until now. Like, why hadn’t Yondu been able to see me? Or hear me? 

“So, you back at Dervani, then?” Yondu asked, changing the subject back to more important matters.

I nodded, fidgeting with the end of my braid behind my back. I hated just  standing here. Yondu inclined his head towards me before continuing.

“Retrieve that moss and come back. This mission wasn’t supposed to take this long.”

I scowled at him in return and hit a button on the pad to end the call. Ha! First try! Feeling immensely proud of myself I kept hitting buttons on the pad, sure that all of its secrets would reveal themselves to me. My newfound confidence soon squashed as I couldn’t figure out the right button to hit to open the main hatch. I let out a roar of frustration much louder than I’d originally intended that echoed around the metal interior of the ship. I heard shuffling coming from the bunk and realized that I must have woken Kraglin. Oops.

“Sonia?” I heard him ask.

I shuffled my way over to him sheepishly and peered over to see him laying on his back with his hands over his face. He did that a lot, I noticed.

“I was trying to figure out the main hatch,” I explained. He looked over at me, the bags under his eyes were less noticeable than before.

“Jus’ hit the switch,” he mumbled before rolling back onto his side.

I continued to stare after him for a couple seconds before calming myself and studying the pad carefully. I knew that the hatch had to be controlled this way, as well as with the PerCom Kraglin had. I’d seen him open it from the outside using it. I mused at the idea of a physical switch that I’d managed to remain completely oblivious to this entire time and hunted around the door. I growled before going up to check the main control panel. I needed to get outside and hunt, or at least get the moss so we could just leave already.

Among all the various switches and buttons I finally managed to locate one that could open the main hatch. I let out a quick sigh of relief and dove through it before it changed its mind. I shifted and took a whiff around. It turned out that the ship autolanded where I had pinpointed the location of the Dervish Moss, right before the attack. Smart. It didn’t take me long to scale the tree and in no time at all, I was pawing under a couple fallen logs and carefully scooping the plant matter into the bag I’d brought with me for this very purpose. I kept my nose and ears at sharp attention to make sure there were no other Badoon or any hostiles in the area. My luck held and soon, my foray was complete and I scurrying back up the tree towards Kraglin’s ship. Goddamn, why couldn’t the initial trip had been that fucking easy. We could have been back to the Elector that same day. Only a few hours had passed since I left the ship.

When I reached the tree top I paused as I heard a screech overhead. I instantly crouched down and looked upward, feeling a low grumbling starting up in my throat. I slunk into the shadow of the ship so as to better hide my black fur, the bag slung around my neck and over my back. Upon reaching cover, I froze, waiting for the owner of the sound to show itself. 

I didn’t have to wait long. A huge shadow appeared on the fungal growth and lazily swooped in circles. I glanced up to see a decent-sized bird of some kind. I slowly and silently crept around and starting climbing atop the ship, positioning myself at a spot where my back claws could get a decent grip on the alloyed exterior. When the avian creature’s path brought it close enough to mine, I launched through the air to crash into it head on, bringing it down.

My prey screeched in my face and opened its beak to reveal pointed teeth, which it proceeded to snap at me. All it managed to get was a few clumps of fur before I swatted its head to the side, knocking it out cold. I bent my head down and took its neck in my jaws, savagely jerking to the side and snapping its neck without spilling blood. Dinner is finally fucking served.


	29. Together - Kraglin

 

Despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t fall back asleep after Sonia woke me. I tossed and turned but my brain was fully awake. I forced myself to lie there to try and catch a few more Z’s (a great Terran phrase I’d picked up,) but the damage was done. I knew Sonia hadn’t meant to wake me up, but I couldn’t help be a  little angry that it’d happened.

 

Giving up, I reached over to put on my clothes before heading to the onship lavatory. While in the shower, I realized that Yondu hadn’t yet been briefed as to our progress. I figured I should call him while I waited for Sonia to return. I hoped that she wouldn’t take too long so we could get the Dervish moss and finally start heading home. After brewing myself more coffee I sat at the table and started connecting to Yondu. I ran my mohawk through my still-damp hair, flicking small water droplets everywhere. Eh, whatever.

 

I was finding out that my coffee was still too hot to consume when Yondu finally answered his Com.

 

“If something  else happened, you’re both in the biggest trouble of your lives,” he growled by the way of a greeting.

 

“Unlikely,” I retorted. As he took in my relaxed state he seemed to stand down a bit. “I was just giving you an update.”

 

“Sonia did that a couple hours ago,” Yondu frowned. “There’s new developments since then?”

 

“Oh, erm, probably not,” I stammered. I hadn’t accounted for Sonia figuring out the pad by herself. “I just woke up.”

 

He nodded. “I know you’re at Dervani so jus’ get back here without anymore incidents, wouldja? I’ll see you two tomorrow when you return.” 

 

Without waiting for a reply, he ended the call. Just then, the main hatch opened up and Sonia strolled in with a bag slung over her shoulder and some kind of large bird in her hand. She looked a little winded, and there were quite a few locks of hair pulled out of her braid with little white things everywhere, but she looked thrilled. I guess the fresh air and running around on the planet’s surface did more for her well-being than rest ever would. I tucked that away in my brain to remember for later if she started to get antsy again.

 

“I caught dinner!” Sonia beamed, holding up the bird. I leaned over in my chair a little closer to see that the little white things were feathers. A little laugh escaped my mouth. 

 

“Don’t get feathers all over my ship,” I told her, taking a sip of coffee. 

 

She shrugged and took her prize into the kitchen area. She set it on the counter and started to pluck feathers off the bird.

 

“I guess we have time to eat, but then we have to get out there and find the moss so we can go home,” I told her, reading some news article about the strikes to nearby outposts. Already planning in my head a route to avoid them.

 

It was a good thing my coffee was not on the table, or it would have been knocked into my lap by the bag that Sonia sent flying in my direction. It landed with a soft  fwump and slid a few centimeters towards me before stopping. I looked at it quizzically before lifting the flap. It was filled to bursting with moss.

 

“You were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you, so I just went and got it myself. It was technically my mission, right? You were more or less just to make sure I didn’t take off,” she explained. I was impressed that she’d picked up on the test Yondu’d given her. I nodded.

 

“Technically, you  did take off the other day, but yes it was a test. Good job.” I congratulated her, draining the dregs of my cup and standing up.

 

My intention was to get more coffee, I felt like two cups were in order to fully wake me up. However, when I reached the mess area, Sonia whirled around and faced me with her hands on the counter behind her. I looked down at her with my mug still raised, confused at the unguarded position this put her in.

 

“When we get back, will Yondu let us be partners?” She asked slowly, as though she didn’t want the answer.

 

And she probably didn’t. “I’m not sure. Jax is already my partner. Not only that, but I’m the First Mate and your ranking wouldn’t be high enough to be a candidate for my partner,” Sonia’s eyes dropped to my feet. I felt so bad for disappointing her like that, but if she wanted to be a crew member, she’d have to follow our rules. Which included ranking. “Since I don’t know if anyone else will work with you, though, it’s hard to say what Yondu will decide. Why do you ask?” I asked.

 

I figured she’d look angry when she met my eyes, but instead she looked… thoughtful. Sonia didn’t move from where she was standing as I reached around her to grab my coffee and pour another cup. When I set the pot back down behind her she looked up at me again and grabbed onto my extended arm.

 

“I… like being near you,” Sonia said quietly. Her eyes were an emerald green so bright they nearly took my breath away. I set my cup down behind her and leaned both hands against the counter, effectively trapping her. I held her eyes with an intense gaze of my own as I searched, thinking they’d reveal to me the answers to her feelings if I probed them long enough. There was a slightly sad look in there, which was quickly replaced as I started to sense a longing. I could feel the heat of her skin from where I was standing and I wanted to envelop myself in it. Sonia opened her mouth to say something, but I leaned forward and took the words right out of her mouth. Literally.

 

This kiss was nothing like the first two. Or like anything I’d ever experienced. The heat from our lips was quickly intensified as her tongue made its way into my mouth. She was never one to be particular shy, but for her to take control like this quickly drove me to a breaking point. I moved my hand to hold the back of her head as she leaned in even closer. Sonia seemed unable to get enough as she started to take on an aggressive nature in her urgency. I let out a low growl that I didn’t know I was even capable of and she gave a slight moan in response. I almost whimpered when she broke it off to meet my gaze.

 

“Bed.” It wasn’t a request. I nodded, still a little dazed from her newfound intensity.

 

“Now.” I agreed. I took her waist with both my hands and lifted her up, her mouth recapturing mine and her legs wrapping around my hips as we stumbled our way to the bunk.

 

Collapsing in a tangle of limbs, I nearly ripped my shirt trying to get it off and I leaned over her again, taking her mouth in mine. I felt her warm hands travel around my back. I struggled for control as I helped her out of her shirt. Both of ours’ pants quickly followed and the struggle for me intensified. Beyond the utter astonishment that this was happening, I knew this was an extreme first for her and didn’t want to ruin it by rushing. But it’d been  such a long time since I’d been laid and she was  so attractive. Everything about her was driving me crazy.

 

After a few more minutes of kissing, I couldn’t hold back any longer and entered her as gently as I could. I caught her eye and she nodded, indicating that she was okay. I have no idea how much a first time hurts for a woman, but I feel that I would be in exorbitant amounts of pain if I’d overstepped a boundary. After getting the go ahead, I increased the rhythm, still trying not to go too fast for her. There’d be time for that later. 

 

Sonia’s hands gripped tighter on my back as she upped the tempo a bit. I swallowed her moans as a small portion of my brain registered a weird pain on my back. I quickly shoved it aside for later as we both peaked in near unison.

 

I felt all of the energy quickly drain out of me as though someone pulled a plug. Suddenly, I was the most tired I could ever remember being. After a few seconds, I realized that I was just staring off into space and I looked down at Sonia. She looked just as tired as I felt. A little dazed, but okay, nonetheless. Her braid was barely being held together and her cheeks were flush with exertion and a thrill that I was pleased to have given her. I grinned at her. She returned with a smile.

 

“I understand the fuss now.”

 

I laughed before rolling off her and laying on my back, staring up at the innards of my ship. Panting heavily, I felt something strange on my back and I reached back cautiously. My hand came away with a slight spattering of blood. I stared at it in amazement.

 

“I think you scratched me.” I glanced over to see she’s rolled onto her side and was watching me. She looked slightly embarrassed at my discovery.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice…”

 

I rolled over to face her. “It’s fine, it feels pretty shallow.”

** I reached over to pull her a bit closer and kissed her before reaching down and grabbing my pad out of my pants pocket to set the autopilot for the Eclector. Relaxing back on the bed, Sonia wiggled into a comfortable position as close as she could get to me and we were both asleep in seconds.   
**


	30. Brightness - Sonia

Without even opening my eyes, my first realization of the day was Kraglin. Peacefully asleep next to me. Why did I wake up? I strained my ears to see if I could detect anything out of order, but everything seemed okay. Then it hit me. Kraglin’s fear-scent again. I reached behind me to find his arm.

I quickly found it and pulled it over me, holding it close to my chest and feeling the rest of his body press up against my bare back. He gripped me even tighter as I noticed the fear-scent abating. He surfaced into wakefullness.

“Sonia?” he whispered.

“I’m here,” I responded, still not opening my eyes.

Kraglin sighed in response and held me tight, confident that I could chase away his demons. Which I would beat into oblivion if I could. The last thing I was aware of was him nuzzling into my hair as I drifted back off to sleep. 

 

*****~^0^~*****

 

Kraglin was gone. I bolted upright, on full alert. Glancing around the ship, I found his face giving me the strangest, startled look from the table. 

“The fuck?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

I’d noticed that when I shook my head, my braid felt really loose. I reached back to find out that it was severely undone. I sighed and sat up to start pulling it apart and retying it. I was starting to get the habit down, the process was sped up incredibly.

I gave a languid stretch before retrieving my clothes. I went to the table and sat across Kraglin.

“How’s your back?”

He looked behind him, as though he could see through his clothes to the scratches underneath.

“I think it’s fine. I can’t really see them, but it’s a very mild pain,” he reported.

“Let me look at them, I want to make sure they don’t infect,” I said.

“Can they?” Kraling looked horrified at this information.

I nodded and he hastily took off his shirt. I walked around to see his back. 

There were two sets of parallel scratches on the backs of each of his shoulders. I leaned forward to give them a whiff. I didn’t notice any signs of infection, which would have set in by now if it was going to. Werepanther scratches infect easily and quickly but these seemed okay. Kraglin was right about them being shallow too, and they seemed to be already healing. However, it was possible that they might scar a little. I’d permanently marked him as mine, as though that weren’t already plainly obvious by my scent being all over him. Actually, his was all over me too. I briefly wondered how long it would last before I realized that I didn’t care. We belonged to each other now.

“You’ll live,” I concluded as I leaned over his shoulder, putting my arm around the other one. He’d been reading his pad through this impromptu medical examination. Which reminded me… “Will you teach me how to read?”

He looked over at me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Of course.”

I smiled as I stood back up and walked to the mess area. My stomach was about to start eating  itself if I didn’t satiate it soon. The first thing I noticed was my bird on the counter, bald and ready for me. 

“Oh yeah, I didn’t know what you wanted to do with it,” Kraglin piped from the table. What  did I want to do with it? I could just eat it raw, but that just didn’t seem quite right to do in my human form. I guess I could pretend to be a civilized person and cook it. The problem was: that was another one of those skills that I was severely lacking in.

“Erm….” I cringed, slowly turned to face Kraglin again to break this news to him. He chuckled and stood up  to come over to me. He put his hand on my head.

“You’ll learn. There’s plenty of time,” he smiled down at me. I stepped aside to let him at my fallen prey from earlier. 

It turns out that Kraglin wasn’t much more adept in the kitchen than I was. I couldn’t chide him though, as by the end there was a fully cooked bird on the plate with some vegetables and some grain that I didn’t recognize, which is way more than I would have accomplished. I don’t even want to know how many fires I would have set. He gave me a sheepish grin in the process.

“I haven’t had kitchen-duty in a few years.”

I shrugged, it was cooked, we had food and more importantly: we had  meat .

We brought our plates to the table and proceeded to eat. It was so much better than the surprise stew that S’Haru made on the main ship. I ate quickly, a hard-to-break habit from a lifetime of never knowing when my next meal would be, and reclined back in my chair afterwards.

I thought about the strange turn my life had taken. My motives for following Kraglin were still unclear to me, but I honestly couldn’t find a good reason to regret it. It was turning out to be the best decision I’d ever made. The things I’d learned about  myself in the last few weeks ran deeper than I would have imagined. The part of myself that I’d kept locked away was slowly being exposed by this man that I couldn’t fully sort my feelings for.

I trusted him. Without a doubt. I trusted Kraglin more than I could ever remember trusting anyone. Even from my faded Terran memories, I’d given Kraglin more than anyone else. Including my body, which I didn’t think I would ever relinquish. Again, I didn’t regret it.

For the first time in my life, I was content. No, more than content. I was  happy . I felt as though I had a place that held a positive impact on me. My life of threat, mistreatment and abuse was behind me and I was more than happy to wave it goodbye forever. I felt that with Kraglin by my side, helping me, supporting me, that I could do anything. I caught his eye and he gave me a small smile, and I could tell in that moment  we were on the same page of a fantastic adventure.


End file.
